“Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is Your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of Your wings. You feed them from the abundance of Your own house, letting them drink from Your river of delights. For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see.” (Psalm 36:6-9 NLT)
Love is not a feeling, it’s a decision. So, how you measure love is not by the height or depth of your emotions, but how much you’re willing to give: of yourself, your resources, your life. Love is measured most effectively through sacrifice. The best picture of love is Jesus on the Cross, pouring out His holy, sinless, life on behalf of those of us who can never earn or deserve His sacrifice.
In our world today there are two categories of people who, to me, illustrate most vividly those who love God. First, those who literally lay down their lives through martyrdom and parents, especially of special needs children. Sacrifice isn’t a word they use, it’s a word they live. Tim Keller wrote: “The real way to know how much you love somebody is how much you are willing to give.”
How much are you willing to give to express your love for Jesus? And yes, of course, money is a very tangible way to show our love for the Lord, but there are other ways as well. For example, time! We give time to the people and things we love. To say we love Jesus and never spend any time reading and studying the Bible is to miss the point of our love for Him.
Jesus was a Rabbi – a teacher! What do teachers do? They teach! To what end? That their students (disciples) will grow in the likeness of their Teacher, not only in how they live, but how they prepare to live. That means we do as we were instructed, but how will we know that if we don’t spend time reading God’s Word?
Yes, we can listen to others teach the Bible, but there are things the Spirit won’t teach us unless and until we begin to dig into the Bible on our own. Two of the most helpful tools I use in my study are a Strong’s Concordance that gives me every word in the Bible based on the King James Version, and, secondly, the use of multi-translations of the Bible. It’s never been easier to use several translations of the same text, all we have to do is google the verse and it will give us any translation we want. And if you don’t know what other translations there are click on this link.
There are several good versions, which are translations by committees of scholars as opposed to one person’s translation. For examples of versions click here. For examples of single persons’ translations click here. Paraphrases or single author translations are not as good to be used alone for Bible study because as a rule they are subject to the author’s personal bias in their translations. That’s why Versions are better, because the translators have to come to a consensus about difficult words or passages.
Also, the manuscripts upon which the translations are based can be important, so, as a rule, the translations based on the latest manuscripts, theoretically, should be the most accurate translations. Of course, Bible reading and study isn’t the only way to sacrifice our time for the love of God. Praying, corporate worship, and sharing our faith are also essentials to giving expression to our love for our Savior. There are many other tangible ways to express our love for the Lord, not the least of which is just being a good, Christ centered and focused, loving, caring, compassionate person who lives what the Bible teaches.
Remember, you’re the only Bible some lost people ever read. Make sure what they’re “reading” is what they’ll find in the Scriptures, and what will help them see your loving sacrifice for the Lord Jesus most clearly.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 