Balancing the Scales

Do you ever feel like you are performing a balancing act, when trying to love God as you should, and be a citizen of this world, at the same time?

In Matthew 10:37, Jesus said, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me."

Strong words from our Lord, often taken out of context by overly zealous teachers and preachers who want to browbeat their audience, using guilt to "develop" more zealous disciples. The danger here is to fail to realize that Jesus used hyperbole very often, and this is yet another case of hyperbole (exaggeration) mixed with a heaping dose of truth.

Taken as a whole, it is hard to dismiss the idea that God wants us to love Him first, last, and always, above everything else. When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus went straight to the well known 10 commandments and told the questioning young man that to love God first, with everything we have, is the greatest commandment. Rightly stated, everything else after that comes into proper perspective.

So, do we prove our love for God by diminishing our love for father and mother, sister and brother? Again, some of those misguided and overly zealous preachers and teachers might say this is the way, thereby proving our love for God, that we must not love others or this world as much, and that will take care of the "who is first" question. I say they are wrong.

If a person wants to tip the scales in God's favor in their heart, they are ill advised to try to cut down or diminish their love for other things (some of these "things" we are in fact instructed to love) so that their minimal love for God will be on par with their love for everything else. This tactic would be similar to eating a spoonful of healthy food to counteract the effect of the huge dessert you plan to consume after the meal.

Instead, and in keeping with the heart of what Jesus was saying, we should increase our love for God, and devotion to Him, to the degree that IN COMPARISON to our love for mother and father, it would almost look like we don't love our earthly loved ones at all. In other words, our love for God is so great that no other thing or person comes close.

Jesus knew that family ties are strong, and He knew that we are not supposed to not love them once we begin to love God. That would be ridiculous. But He used this stark and strong contrast and hyperbole to make the point that loving God supersedes all other passions in life, and if we follow that plan, other rightful loves and passions will be brought into perspective and balanced out.

I say that we Christians should quit the frivolity of trying to "clean house" in order to prove our love for God, and instead should just sit at His feet, learn of Him and from Him, focus upon Him, understand our place with Him, and then let those things that may or may not compete with Him be sorted out in the wash, so to speak. "Wash" here meaning time, experience, and just living life.

We don't love God anywhere like we should. We must admit that. We don't love Him because we don't know Him. We don't know Him because we are afraid of Him, and rightly so, and we keep our distance. We want to know Him in general terms, like the people of Israel, wanting Moses to tell them what God said and looked like, but not wanting to know first hand. To be close to Him is to feel the burn of His holiness, but it is also to feel the extreme love and kindness He offers as well. We need both. And they come together, as a set. Along with the myriad other attributes of God.

I think the fast track to knowing God, in order to increase our love for Him, begins in His word. Reading the Word with the singular intent to learn about Him, instead of trying to get messages in there for us. Secondly, praying with the intent of praising Him, and then, listening to Him. God is going to take care of the Aunts and the loss of jobs and the hungry masses whether we pray for them or not. Instead, we should pray praises to Him for what He has already done, and will do, on our behalf and for the world.
Third, we need to be thankful in all things, understanding that nothing happens by chance, this is a sinful and fallen world, but God is always about the business of taking what is twisted and wrong and returning it to the right.

God is always righting the scales.

So you want to love God more? Then quit trying to clean out your "house," thinking that such activity will prove something to God and yourself. Instead, make a new commitment each day to learn from and about God, resist selfish ambition which is part of being human, and understand that this long journey of attempting to put God first will reap huge rewards both now, and in the future, and enjoy a much more balanced life in the meantime.