You’ve said a mouthful.

I would say, on the basis of linguistic and contextual research (e.g. Matthew Elliot, Faithful Feelings), that love does in fact include emotion (although it certainly includes action also, without which it would not be true love). Just imagine if you had no “feelings” for your wife, but begrudgingly and ritually followed all the “actions” you knew were your duty as a husband. Would she feel honored? I also defer to John Piper on this same point.

I also defer to Paul, who, for example, implied that God cares whether we give “cheerfully” or not. This assumes that our feelings matter when we give. I could multiply examples of this, but I’ve written a great deal about it in several posts on my blog if you care to look into it (search: emotion).

On the one hand, Jesus is our friend (the Bible uses the word “friend” both for Yahweh and for Jesus). Thus, we have to understand God as more than just our King or ruler who speaks with authority. On the other hand, this “friend” (whether we refer to Yahweh or Jesus) is not to be understood as anything LESS THAN our King and ruler with absolute authority. This is a fine line, and well-meaning Christians differ on how the tightrope should be approached.

But certainly, all Christians should agree that treating our sin lightly and approaching God without due consideration of his holiness is a colossal mistake.

Great thoughts! Great post!

Bradley

Do we do the same kind of thing to build our relationship with Jesus? What specifics do you do to build your relationship with Him so you do not find yourself an adulterer, and losing your first love in Him?

Sometimes I think we are more casual in our relationship with Jesus than any other relationship in the world. We come to Him with an air of such confidence in His grace and mercy, we fail to fear Him and stand in awe of Him, and recognize His glory and majesty and power, and holiness. And we act like it is just fine to say whatever we want in His presence, act anyway we want in His presence, and treat others as rudely as we feel in His presence. Instead of bringing Him the absolute best we can, we settle for less because, well, He understands. We expect Him to fix all our problems, cure all our ills, and deliver us from all our bungled decisions. We expect to live as we want without one whit of consequence for what we choose to do. I wonder. If we did that with our spouses, how well would that go over? If our children did that with us, how well would that set in our minds?

I agree it’s all about sanctification. My post is about living with a mind set above the ways of the world and seeking the only way to accomplish it–in His grace, by His grace, and with His grace. Gosh I feel good thinking about all Jesus is, don’t you? I think so often about how He died for me and I am just a speck on a grain of sand in the vast expanse of this universe. A speck! And Jesus gave up heaven, was dumped on, ridiculed, rejected, spat upon, lived in poverty, was beaten, hated, stripped of all his clothes and hung naked on a cross to die an excruciating, humiliating, death. For me! A speck in the scheme of things. Wow…and I have trouble being nice to the snotty clerk at Wal-Mart in return? how little we are…yet sometimes we think we are doing such big things.

Bradley, I appreciate your comment. I got a bit carried away. I just used it as an opportunity to high-light how lax we become in our walk sometimes when Christ died to give us everything and we live to give Him as little as possible. Don’t believe we’ve ever met. I’ll go check your blog. God Bless you in your process. It gets sweeter for me the older I get. selahV

I like to put it like this when I teach on mortification: You don’t avoid adultery by merely avoiding wrong actions (e.g. going out with some women to lunch by yourselves, flirting with female coworkers, entertaining thoughts in your mind, etc.). The best way to avoid adultery is not by merely avoiding the wrong actions that would lead to such a sin, but to invest more time and energy cultivating your relationship with your wife. The more you love your wife, the less power the adulterous woman has over you to tempt you. Our relationship with Christ is analogous to this. How to avoid sin? By spending more time cultivating and strengthening our relationship with Christ.

1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Indeed the following makes for interesting consideration when evaluating how one is to walk in faith and grow in His grace to be the salt and light our Lord mentioned in a sermon Matthew recorded, do you agree?

5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

It’s kinda like laying aside every weight so we can run the race with no encumbrances. And accepting the discipline and scourging of God to develop patience, temperance, self-control, and other characteristics of regenerated faith in Him. It also has me very carefully consider the wisdom of godly admonitions, and exhortations from His gifted prophets. Ah, to die daily, yes, even moment by moment, and rise anew to a deeper regenerated walk which leads others to follow in His grace. Yet, even in this desire, I love that I can rest in God’s grace and find confidence that His Spirit works in me until the day of completion as He promises in Philippians 1:6. Such peace in knowing Him. Such peace. selahV

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations– “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)–according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:20-23 ESV)