“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”—Jesus, John 14:15

When we begin a relationship with someone we love and adore; we begin to change.  We begin to move farther away from pleasing ourselves and taking care of our own interests and needs with an attitude shift toward to object of our affection.  We shift our thinking from pleasing ourselves to pleasing the one we think about all day long.  We want to see this person smile.  We will do most anything and give everything we have so this one will love us back. We even do silly things just to get their attention.  We will sacrifice whatever we have so we can give gifts of love to this person that we love. When they return our love with the same attitude shift in their lives, “it is a match made in heaven”!

But, if this person betrays us in any way, we are deeply wounded and disheartened.  We wonder if our love can survive this blow to our relationship.  We wonder if our love can sustain all the things they now put in the way, blocking the awesomeness of our relationship. We are jealous of all others because our love for this person is so great.  We want the best for them but we want to be the one who is the best for them.  And we are sad.

God is a jealous God for our love, adoration, and attention.  Why, we might ask?  Can God not handle our love for other things that grab our attention and draw us away from Him?  Can’t God share us with other gods that attract and distract us from Him?  And the greater question; does His love for us change if we are unfaithful to Him?  Oh my yes, this is worth going deeper still to evaluate our love for our God and His love for us.  We must go beyond our human thinking to how God might think.

Throughout God’s Word; God answers these questions simply and profoundly.  Our relationship with God is the most important relationship we will ever have because this relationship is forever.  The love of God is like no other on earth! God first loved us and chose us to be His. The prophets say God sings over us at night and delights in all the details of our days. God promised a Messiah to the Jewish nation and to the rest of the world centuries earlier and then delivered on His promise beyond what the Jews could ever dream or hope for from God.  God sent His Son to sacrifice his life for ours; a once and for all sacrifice, for the sins of the entire world!  God sends His best all because of His great Love for us.  God wants us to love Him back and He sent Jesus to show us how to love.

God is a jealous God but not for the reasons humans are jealous.  God wants the very best for those He has created and loves.  God is jealous and saddened for us when anything gets in the way of pouring out His blessings of His best over us for our good and His glory.  Yes, God wants us to simply love Him back with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls.  For God is our God.  “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” 

Deuteronomy 7

Driving Out the Nations

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— ² and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. ³ Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, ⁴ for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. ⁵ This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. ⁶ For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

⁷ The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸ But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. ¹⁰ But

those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction;
    he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

¹¹ Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

¹² If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. ¹³ He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. ¹⁴ You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young. ¹⁵ The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you. ¹⁶ You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

¹⁷ You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?” ¹⁸ But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. ¹⁹ You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. ²⁰ Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. ²¹ Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. ²² The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them. ²⁵ The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Regard it as vile and utterly detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Warren Wiersbe writes;

Most Christians today live in pluralistic societies in democratic nations and don’t have the authority to annihilate everybody who worships a false God, nor should they want that authority. Our task is to love those we disagree with and seek to win them to faith in Christ. But at the same time, we must maintain a separated position and not be contaminated by the ideas or activities of the lost world.  “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers”… Psalm 1:1

However, separation is not isolation! If believers are isolated, how can they be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13, 14) like Jesus taught believers who followed Him?  How can we influence others for the Lord? Believers can be separated from sin with the Helper God sent to us—His Holy Spirit who has power to help us overcome. Guided by the Holy Spirit who leads us to all truth we involve ourselves in the normal challenges and activities of human life.  With God’s Holy Spirit helping us our relationship with God grows deeper and stronger.  With God’s Holy Spirit we grow in our faith, hope, and love.  By His Spirit living in us, we love for others grow and will begin to bear the fruits of the character of Christ!  Those fruits include: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

As we grow in grace, because of His Grace, we learn to love and enjoy what pleases God.  We also learn to despise and reject what displeases Him. It’s not just a matter of our will obeying God’s commands; it’s also a matter of developing a heart that enjoys obeying God (Ephesians 6:6).

We must pause, reflect, and prayerfully evaluate our hearts and ask; “Why are we doing what we’re doing?” (Instead of often asking God why is He doing what He does!) 

Are we doing things that please ourselves or others, or to impress the world?

Are we doing the will of God because we want Him to bless us?

Or do we do “the will of God from the heart” (Ephesians 6:6)—because we love Him? To obey God just to avoid punishment and receive blessing is a selfish motive that follows the philosophy of Satan (Job 1–2), but if we obey God out of love, it pleases His heart and He will give us what is best and what glorifies Him the most.

Like Israel of old, the church today must move forward by faith, conquer the enemy, and claim new territory for the Lord (2 Cor. 2:14–17; Eph. 6:10–18). But unlike Israel, we use spiritual weapons, not human weapons, as by faith we overcome the walls of resistance that Satan has put into the minds of sinners—and all have sinned! 

“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  We must allow this thought to humble us daily as we seek God daily.  Jesus, the Christ, was sent by God who loved us so much He sent His Son to save us—all our sins—forever.  Jesus willingly laid his life down on a cross we deserved and be nailed to that cross to pay for our sins—yours, mine, and for the whole world of people, created in God’s image, to be redeemed from the world of sin to God’s world of righteousness and goodness!  When I think of this truth alone; I am brought to my knees in grateful thanksgiving!

Believe, repent, and be saved for eternity!  Then tell everyone that God is the one and only God and He loves them!  So much so, He sent His Son to save and help them!

Lord,

Thank you for your Word that teaches, corrects, and compels us to tell Your Story of Your glory, love, mercy, grace, assurance, repentance, comfort, help in times of trouble, comfort in times of grief, along with your perfect wisdom to live this life in ways that please you as we love you back with our very lives given to you!

In Jesus Name, Amen, Yes!