From God with Love
“Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8).
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
These passages from Scripture set forth two major truths about God. The first is, God is a God of love. The second grows out of the first: God gives gifts - not just ordinary gifts but “good” and “perfect” gifts. Satan and the world system have endeavoured to distort or obscure the truth about God. Throughout the centuries and in every part of the world he has pictured God as a God of anger, a God who wants to harm His earthly children, a God who watches their every move in order to catch them in some mistake, and punish them. The devil has portrayed God as being far more interested in justice than in mercy. Justice is getting what you deserve, but mercy is getting what you don’t deserve. Yet – no mercy, no love!
More than anything, we need to spend time focusing on our heavenly Father as a God of love. We need to be clear in our own minds why God watches us. He watches us closely not to judge us but because He loves us and is interested in our welfare. It is said that when Isaac Watts was but a child he was visiting in the home of an elderly Christian woman who asked him to read a framed Bible text hanging on the wall. The text was Genesis 16:13 as it reads in the King James Version: “You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees.” After Watts had read it, the saintly woman said: “When you are older, people will tell you that God is always watching you to see when you do wrong, in order to punish you. I don’t want you to think of it that way. I want you to take the text home and remember all your life that God loves you so much He can’t take His eyes off you.” Watts ended up writing 750 hymns.
God Loves to Give. And because He is a God of love, He loves to give. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11). What an understandable comparison! How easy it is to identify with this! Parents enjoy finding “just the right” gifts for their children, especially for the little ones. Their hearts leap with pleasure as their children tear open the bright wrappings and squeal with delight at sight of the gift. Using this joyful experience as a base, Jesus continued, “How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Truly, God gives “to those who ask.” But He does one more. He gives gifts to everybody! Jesus highlighted this when He said: “Your Father in heaven ...makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
God is a giver! Whatever we have – whether little or much – it has come to us as a gift from God. The apostle Paul highlighted this well when he wrote: “We brought nothing into this world” (1 Timothy 6:7). And David, the Psalmist, declared: “The earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness” (Psalm 24:1).
I like the story of the little girl who told an older friend that she was going to buy her father a pair of slippers for his birthday. “Where will you get the money?” the friend asked. Opening her eyes wide, the little girl responded, “Why, Daddy will give me the money.” And so it is with us and our heavenly Father. “The sun which shines upon the earth, and glorifies all nature, the weird, solemn radiance of the moon, the glories of the firmament, spangled with brilliant stars, the showers that refresh the land, and cause vegetation to flourish, the precious things of nature in all their varied richness, the lofty trees, the shrubs and plants, the waving grain, the blue sky, the green earth, the changes of day and night, the renewing seasons, all speak to man (us) of His (our) Creator’s love.” – Counsels on Stewardship.
God’s Best Gift. In this study of God’s gifts, let us place the gift of Jesus in its rightful place - at the top. This is the gift that reveals the infinite dimensions of God’s love. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). If a little child asks mother or father, “How much do you love me?” the parent sometimes responds by extending both arms and spreading them out as far as possible, saying, and “This much!” followed by a hug and a kiss. But when we as a bunch of sinners ask God how much He loves us, He points to Jesus dying in agony on the cross, and says, “This much!” The gift of Christ reveals the Father’s heart. It testifies that, having undertaken our redemption, He will spare nothing, however dear, which is necessary for the completion of His work. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).
Now, out of the Gift of the life (and death) of Jesus came another great gift - justification for repentant sinners. Christ, coming to earth as man, lived a holy life, and developed a perfect character. These He offers as a free gift to all who will receive them. His life stands for the life of men. They have remission of sins that are past, through the leniency of God. And, unbelievable though it may seem, God actually loves His redeemed earthly children as much as He loves His own Son. Jesus made this clear in His final prayer to His Father in Gethsemane when He said: “You have ...loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:23).
Spiritual Gifts. When Jesus returned to heaven, did God cease to love His people? Did He stop giving them gifts? No. But in addition to the numberless gifts that He had already bestowed, He gave a special kind of gifts - gifts of the Spirit, gifts often referred to as spiritual gifts. In First Corinthians 12 the apostle Paul wrote: “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I don’t want you to be ignorant” (v.1). Then, in verse 11 he said: “These are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.” The gifts He gave were ministry gifts - “some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). The purpose of the gifts was “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (verse 12).
In this same chapter the apostle compares the church to a body. He states that the church is the body of Christ (vs. 12, 27) and that every person in the church is important, just as every part of the human body is essential. He declares that Christ is the Head (Ephesians 4:15) and that each member fills an essential role in making the body function successfully. The work that each member is to do is determined by the Holy Spirit. The “Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11).
“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. There are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues” (verses 4-10).
Let us note two facts: 1) These spiritual gifts are not merely natural talents that come through physical inheritance, and 2) the Holy Spirit decides who is to receive them. The Spirit may take into account the natural aptitudes or abilities of the one on whom the spiritual gift is to be bestowed, but not necessarily. The Spirit knows the overall needs of the body, Christ’s church, and makes the choice based on that need. Chaos would result if spiritual gifts were distributed randomly or in response to personal request. The human body is not all eyes, ears, arms, or legs. Neither can the church body be all pastors, administrators, healers, or prophets.
Like the early church in the city of Corinth, it can be said of the remnant church: “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians1:4-7).
As the apostle Paul considered the gift of Jesus and the wonderful evidences of God’s grace in the Corinthian church, he exclaimed: “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). And today, as we review God’s infinite love and the countless gifts that flow from that love, we can well borrow Paul’s language and say, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gifts, especially the Gift of Jesus and the testimony of Jesus, which is manifest through the gifts of the Holy Spirit!”
From God, With Love - the Gift of Jesus Christ - the Gifts of the Holy Spirit… |
Chris Demetriou, 14/02/2010 |
|
