Posted: 8/01/07
Explore the Bible Series for August 12
Worship guided by love
• Malachi 1:1-14
First Baptist Church, Duncanville
In the mid-1300s, the Black Death spread across Asia and Europe, killing approximately 75 million people, perhaps two-thirds of the population at that time. It was a viral wave that crashed into two continents, changing the world forever. Imagine for a moment how the world might have changed if it had been an epidemic of love instead of an epidemic of death.
God planted the seeds of such an epidemic in the person of Jesus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God’s sent love, like a virus, into the world, hoping it would infect two-thirds of the population and sweep across the continents.
Unfortunately, just as epidemics resurface and disappear, the “love bug” also ebbs and flows. Not because we don’t want it, but because we are resistant to it.
French dramatist, Jean Anouilh, once said, “Love is, above all else, the gift of oneself.”
Perhaps that’s where the problem lies. Giving of ourselves doesn’t always come naturally. As a result, we slip into the condition Malachi condemns in this week’s lesson. Not only have we grown immune to God’s love, we often undervalue it, causing us to behave in ways offensive to God.
Impure worship dishonors God
The book opens with a simple declaration of God’s love. “‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord” (v. 2). But it continues with God’s complaint against his children: “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” (v. 6).
Out of his abundant love, God has poured out his best for us. God, who is love, has done the very thing Anouilh said. He gave the gift of himself as evidence of his love. All God asks in return is that we offer our own love in the same way. It is not enough to declare faith in God. If we call him Lord, we owe him both honor and respect.
God complains that worship has become contemptible to him. Instead of offering him our best, we take the best for ourselves and give him the leftovers. “When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? … Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you?” (v. 8).
God’s complaint is valid. We pay close attention to our dress and speech and actions when we know we’ll be meeting a VIP. Yet on Sunday mornings, we don’t give a thought to appearing late for worship, singing half-heartedly, failing to tithe and then planning the rest of our week during the pastor’s sermon.
We are wrong on two counts. First, by reserving worship for only one hour a week, we are giving God the leftovers of our time. And second, during the small portion of time we do give God, we focus on ourselves, our comfort and our needs. In essence, we ignore God and call it worship.
Nothing could be more offensive to God. He would prefer no worship to false worship. “‘Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will accept no offering from your hands’” (v. 10). We say we love God. If our love is real, we will respond to God’s complaint and worship God in thankfulness, with a pure heart.
Colossians 3:23-24 tells us: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” According to the Bible, worship should take place 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Everything we do is worship if we do it for God.
Pure worship is guided by love
God wants more than verbal commitments and weekly appearances at church. He wants our hearts. He wants our devotion. We must love God with a pure heart.
Love is defined as a feeling of affection or tenderness. So if we feel anything toward God at all, we generally say we love him. Of course, our definition is far weaker than God’s. God’s definition of love is more action-oriented. It waits patiently, acts kindly and thinks more highly of others than of itself. God’s love seeks others’ needs, erases wrong-doings, protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres. True love acts rather than feels, and it never fails.
Loving God means thinking of him, considering his desires and, as Anouilh said, making a gift of ourselves. It also means spending time with God, because only through focused attention can we get to know God and the things that please him. God knows we need simple answers, though, so Jesus gave us step-by-step directions for how to love God.
First, he tells us how to express our love for God. “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). If we say we love God, but fail to obey him, we aren’t being honest with ourselves. Loving God means obeying him.
Second, he stresses the importance of God’s commands. “I know that his command leads to eternal life” (John 12:50). Salvation is more than a prayer. It is a new life. God loves us so much he gave us a guide book for life. But the guidelines aren’t mere suggestions. We must think of them as the cure for death. The reward for obeying God is eternal life.
And third, Jesus tells us the command we must obey. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). God wants us to think of love as similar to a virus. His love infects us, and we in turn share it with those around us. With any luck, the virus will become an epidemic, and everything we do will be affected by love for God and one another.
Love is not an option. But false love doesn’t fool God. We cannot continue to say we love God if we won’t obey him. “Love must be sincere” (Romans 12:9). As Jesus said: “He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me” (John 14:24).
But loving God comes with its own rewards. “As it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Yes, sometimes love is difficult. And it always costs us. But every gift should cost something. The miracle is that this gift gives something back. “The man who loves God is known by God” (1 Corinthians 8:3).
Let’s do our best not to grieve God further. Let’s do as Paul suggests in Ephesians 5:1-2, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us.”
Discussion questions
• What are ways we take the focus off God during worship?
• What can we do to make worship about God again?
• If you were infected with the love bug, who would catch it?
• What can you begin doing to help spread the love bug?
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