What Binds the Hands of Love?

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1:3–5)

The problem with the church today is not that there are too many people who are passionately in love with heaven. The problem is not that professing Christians are retreating from the world, spending half their days reading Scripture and the other half singing about their pleasures in God all the while indifferent to the needs of the world. That’s not happening! The people of God are not so full of love to God that they spend half their days in his word.

The problem is that professing Christians are spending ten minutes reading Scripture and then half their day making money and the other half loving and repairing what they spend it on.

It’s not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love for the lost and hurting of this world. It is worldly-mindedness that hinders love, even when it is disguised by a religious routine on the weekend.

Where is the person whose heart is so passionately in love with the promised glory of heaven that he feels like an exile and a sojourner on the earth? Where is the person who has so tasted the beauty of the age to come that the diamonds of the world look like marbles from the dollar store, and the entertainment of the world feels empty, and the moral causes of the world are too small because they have no view to eternity? Where is this person?

To be sure, he is not in bondage to the Internet or eating or sleeping or drinking or partying or fishing or sailing or putzing around. He is a free man in a foreign land. And his one question is this: How can I maximize my enjoyment of God for all eternity while I am an exile on this earth? And his answer is always the same: by doing the labors of love. By expanding my joy in God, no matter the cost, if by any means possible I might include others in it.

Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven. And heaven is a world of love!

It is not the cords of heaven that bind the hands of love and make them ineffective. It is the love of money and leisure and comfort and praise — these are the cords of selfishness that bind the hands of love. And the power to sever these cords is Christian hope. “We heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven” (Colossians 1:4–5).

I say it again with all the conviction that lies within me: it is not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love on this earth. It is worldly-mindedness. And therefore the great fountain of love is the powerful, freeing confidence of Christian hope.

John Piper 

Live Like You Belong to Jesus

“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”

MATTHEW 25:40

 

PONDER THIS

When you do something for one of the brothers of Jesus, it’s just like you have done it unto Jesus because His friends are our friends. If you love Jesus, you’re going to love what Jesus loves. And if you don’t love the brethren, certain conclusions are in order.

The late, great Vance Havner was a Baptist preacher from North Carolina, full of wisdom. Here’s what he said: “When I see a bird that looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, paddles in water like a duck, and prefers the company of ducks, I conclude it must be a duck!”

When you see people who live like the world, dress like the world, act like the world, and prefer the company of the world rather than the company of God’s people, they’re of the world! If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re going to love what Jesus loves, and Jesus loves the Church. He loves the brethren. His friends are our friends—“…as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

What evidence does your life give that you are “of Jesus”? “Of the world”?

What changes is God calling you to make to move closer to Jesus today?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider the changes you feel God leading you to make. Take concrete steps toward change today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

 

Titus 1:2

[2] in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

Ephesians 1:13-14

[13] In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, [14] who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

1 Peter 1:4-5

[4] to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, [5] who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

2 Timothy 4:8

[8] Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

If He Calls, He Keeps

[The Lord] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9)

What are you depending on to ensure that your faith will last until Jesus comes?

The question is not, Do you believe in eternal security? The question is, How are we kept secure?

Does the perseverance of our faith rest decisively on the reliability of our own resolve? Or does it rest decisively on the work of God to “keep us trusting”?

It is a great and wonderful truth of Scripture that God is faithful and will keep forever those whom he has called. Our confidence that we are eternally secure is a confidence that God will do whatever is necessary to “keep us trusting!”

The certainty of eternity is no greater than the certainty God will keep us trusting now. But that certainty is very great for all whom God has called.

At least three passages put the call of God and the keeping of God together in this way.

“[The Lord] will sustain you (keep you) to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:8–9).

“May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24).

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you” (Jude 1–2). (See the same reality in Romans 8:30, Philippians 1:6, 1 Peter 1:5, and Jude 24.)

The “faithfulness” of God guarantees that he will keep safe forever all whom he has called.

John Piper 

Don’t Look Away from the Cross

“When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” LUKE 22:53

 

PONDER THIS

In this verse, Jesus referred to the power of Satan. Hell had a holiday and demons taunted and tormented the Lord Jesus when He was on the cross. God-forsaken, attacked by Satan, and abused by men, Jesus suffered, bled, and died for you at the holy hand of God, the hateful hand of man, and the hellish hand of Satan.

That’s the agony of the cross. How can we be unmoved? How can we ignore such love? How can we go idly on our way when Jesus Christ paid that price for us? You may wonder, “Did He really take my Hell? He was only there for six hours on the cross.” But in six hours, Jesus suffered everything you’d suffer for eternity. He, being infinite, suffered in a finite period, what you as a finite being would suffer in an infinite period. The sins of the world were distilled upon Jesus and eternities were compressed upon the Lord Jesus. No one ever suffered like Jesus, and it was for your sake.

What stands out to you about the fact that Jesus suffered for your sake?

How does it change your perspective of God to remember He willingly sent Jesus to suffer so you would be restored to Him?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of ways you know Jesus suffered. Prayerfully reflect over this list and thank God that this was done for your sake.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

Colossians 1:22

[22] he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

1 Corinthians 5:5

[5] you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Philippians 2:16

[16] holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Luke 17:24-25

[24] For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. [25] But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

As Sure as God’s Love for His Son

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

God strips every pain of its destructive power. You must believe this or you will not thrive, or perhaps even survive, as a Christian, in the pressures and temptations of modern life.

There is so much pain, so many setbacks and discouragements, so many controversies and pressures. I do not know where I would turn, if I did not believe that almighty God is taking every setback and every discouragement and every controversy and every pressure and every pain, and stripping it of its destructive power, and making it work for the enlargement of my joy in God.

Listen to Paul’s astonishing words in 1 Corinthians 3:21–23, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” The world is ours. Life is ours. Death is ours. Which I take to mean: God reigns so supremely on behalf of his elect that everything which faces us in a lifetime of obedience and ministry will be subdued by the mighty hand of God and made the servant of our holiness and our everlasting joy in God.

If God is for us, and if God is God, then it is true that nothing can succeed against us. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all will infallibly and freely with him give us all things — all things — the world, life, death, and God himself.

Romans 8:32 is a precious friend. The promise of God’s future grace is simply overwhelming. But all-important is the foundation: I have called it the logic of heaven. Here is a place to stand against all obstacles. God did not spare his own Son! Therefore! Therefore! The logic of heaven! Therefore, how much more will he not spare any effort to give us all that Christ died to purchase — all things, all good, and all bad working for our good!

It is as sure as the certainty that he loved his Son!

John Piper