January 13: EVERY KNEE
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8
The very essence of God is pure, righteous, irreproachable, selfless agape love. This perfect love is the very core of His nature, the substance of His being, and the power behind every act He performs. Love is not created, for God has always been, and will always be, love.
In selfishness, our enemy has no concept of real love. Tragically, he has conditioned our world to use the word “love” primarily in shallow and meaningless ways. At best, we associate it with sentimental and selfish human emotions. At worst, we apply it to inanimate objects. In comparison to the reality that the Creator desires to reveal in and through us, our use of the word is mostly thin, colorless, and insipid.
We tend to deify our small idea of love. Simultaneously, we trivialize the instructions of God—who is love—as arbitrary and/or optional.
An essential part of maturing in the faith calls for deliberately and intentionally beholding, with our spiritual eyes, the depth and meaning behind all that is instructed in the written word, as well as the spoken words and visible actions of Jesus as He dwelt upon the earth. The physical and the spiritual are so perfectly interwoven that even everyday duties are imbued with purpose and meaning, provided we have surrendered all that we have and all that we are to Him. We have been given a perfect set of instructions, a perfect example for living them out, and a perfect substitutionary blood sacrifice to cover our shortcomings and failures. In addition, we are given—just for the asking—the Holy Spirit of God to guide us into all truth—and by inference, away from all error.
“When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth…. He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” John 16:13a,14b
In the agricultural metaphor, Almighty God asks the penetrating question:
“Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?” Isaiah 5:3b-4
In the end, at the execution of the final judgement, even the wicked and unrepentant will see and agree that there is nothing more that the LORD could have done to persuade them to choose the path of righteousness. In that moment, He will be utterly vindicated in the sight of everyone who has ever lived, both the saved and the unrepentant. Our God will be vindicated from every accusation of unfairness, bribery, partiality, and cruelty that Satan has levied against Him.
For it is written: “As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” Romans 14:11