“Words Like Honey”: What We Love when We Love God, part 3
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength… [And] You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” – Jesus, in Mark 12:30-31
Last week we observed that, when we say we love God, what we love is God Himself.
This “essential”-God is described in “God is…” statements, like, “God is Holy,” or “God is Love.” But these themselves point to an even more profound and glorious mystery—God is Three Person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (E.g. Mat 28:19) The Trinity explains why God is Holy—God is truly “other.” The Trinity also explains how God is love—the perfect righteousness of God demands that God honor most perfectly what is most worthy of honor in the most appropriate manner, which is, of course, the eternal love being given and received by the three persons of God.
But there is more. What we love when we love someone is, we love them. Nonetheless, it is appropriate to describe what we love about them specifically.
One attribute of a person uniquely allows us to get to know them better: their words.
We love God for He is worthy. And we love God for His words.
TRUE
When we reflect on the people in our lives whom we trust or don’t, the difference is often whether their word is true, or not. So if what they say, they don’t do, they are unreliable. If what they say, they do, they are trustworthy. To say that you can take someone “at their word,” is to mark them as being a trustworthy and true person.
Their words reveal their character; their character inhabits their words.
And so we meet God in His word. Not just as a character in the stories of the Bible, but we get to know God Himself, and whether He is true or untrue.
Does He do what He says He’ll do? Do those who knew Him well agree with how He describes Himself? Indeed, there is such alignment between what God says and does, so we know that His word is true, and that He Himself is true.
“In old age, the righteous declare, ‘The LORD is upright, He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him!” (Psa 92:16)
Sometimes in life we can feel like we don’t know what is true or what isn’t. Well, in God, we know One Source that will tell us what is true and what isn’t. The Bible is the Word of God and it is not only truthful, it is true. We can lean on it for wisdom, understanding, insight, when we are confused.
Or when we don’t know who to trust in our lives, in our world, we know One who is trustworthy and true. We love God for this reason. He is a rock, a fortress, a firm foundation. His word is an anchor, a bulwark, armor. God, and His Word, are true.
And all this Jesus takes and applies to Himself when He says, “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who builds his life upon The Rock.” (Mat 7:24)
We do know who to trust, we do know where to turn.
LIGHT
More than true, God’s words are supremely helpful. “Your Word is a light unto my feet and a light to my path.” (Psa 119:105)
When we are in the dark, or when we have come to uncertain territory, we have something we can turn to that can help us see.
The Bible is saying that, when we are “in the dark,” the Bible can help us make sense of our situation. And when we’re “lost and stumbling around,” the Bible can provide us security and direction—these are the things you know, this is where you’ve been, this is where you’re going, this is the real situation you’re in.
Or, as Jesus puts it still more personally: “My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me.” (John 10:27)
The Word is a light; the LORD has a voice. Through the promises, stories, assurances, logic, information, wisdom of Scripture, God pours out on us all we need to keep us from stumbling and to make us feel secure.
LIFE
More than true and helpful, God’s words are life-giving.
I love the expression Jonathan uses in 1 Samuel 14:29, when he takes a mouthful of honey and the sugar rush hits him: “See how my eyes have brightened!” This is the picture the psalmist uses in Psalm 119:103, “How sweet are Your Words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
Jesus quotes Scripture to this effect when replying to satan, “People can’t live eating just bread—real living requires every word that comes from the mouth of God!” (Mat 4:4)
Paul agrees: “All Scripture is breathed-out by God and is profitable… that we may be complete, ready for every good work.” (2Tim 3:6-17)
From cover to cover, the writers of Scripture don’t just find in God’s word the true record of the reliable God, or even just wisdom and insight for the problems of life. They bear witness over and over again to that most fundamental truth of Scripture: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… and God said, ‘Let there be… and there was!’” God’s word makes alive. God’s word gives us life. God’s word lays out the path to true life, fullness of life, overflowing life, that which is life indeed, life forevermore. (see, Psa 16:11; John 10:10; 1Tim 6:19)
CHRIST
We love God for His words, for His Word. And the loudest word God speaks, the clearest light He gives, and the most life He’s poured out on us, is in Jesus.
Jesus is The Word of God, the God to whom all the Word points. (1John 5:20)
Jesus is the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God, the LORD our shepherd guiding us, using all of Scripture. (2Cor 4:6; Psa 23:1, John 10:10, 27; Luk 24:27)
Jesus is the Life of God, flowing into our lives, drawing us into His life, with every turn of every page—“The Words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63; see also, John 6:35, 48; 8:12; 11:25; 14:6)
What we love, when we love God, is we love Him as we have met Him in His Word, in Scripture, and most lovely of all, in that Word from God who is Christ Jesus our LORD.
Prayer
"Oh how I love Your law!" "Consider how I love Your commands!" (Psa 119:97, 159)
Yes, Lord, as Your Word instructs us, Your Word itself is a fitting object of our love and devotion. For You are in Your Word in a way that we both can understand, and in a way that is holy and beyond us.
We love You, and we love Your Word.
Thank You, Lord, for all that You are, and all that You are for us in Your Word. Thank You for revealing Yourself to us, and for making known to us the path of life back to You. Lord, we love You in Your Word, we love You for Your Word, we love Your Word.
And in all this, what we are also saying, is we love and thank You for Jesus. There is a strange and holy mystery here, and all we can most appropriately say in reply is, Wow, and Thank You.
In the Name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Photo by Danika Perkinson on Unsplash