Learning to Love beyond our Idols

Love is a primary attribute of God. It is one of the qualities revealed in scripture that shows fundamentally what makes God, GOd. In Deuteronomy, God reminded his people:

Deut 7:7-8 “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you ....”

John said

1 John 4:8 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”

“The divine attributes are what we know to be true of God. He does not possess them as qualities; they are how God is as He reveals Himself to His creatures. Love, for instance, is not something God has and which may grow or diminish or cease to be. His love is the way God is, and when He loves He is simply being Himself.” (A. W. Tozer. The Knowledge of the Holy (p. 23). Digital Fire. Kindle Edition.)

I believe for us its going to reveal the love of God, or the idolotry of our heart. The Corinthians have a heart problem. When a heart has been changed by Christ, the Gospel becomes the priority of our life. I need to ask myself three questions to see if the Gospel is truly the priority.

1. Is My Gospel witness more important than the honor I could demand: v9:1-2

Apostolic authority:

There seems to have been division over Pauls authority in the church here. “if to others I am not an Apostle, at least I am to you.”

1 Cor 1:1 “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,”

1 Cor 4:9 “For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.”

1 Cor 9:1 “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?”

1 Cor 15:9 “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (After describing the calling of the others…)

Definition of an apostle (“one sent on a mission with the authority of the sender”) is one whom God has sent.. An apostle is accountable to his Sender and carries the authority of his Sender. An apostleship is the office an apostle holds.

(Acts 1:12–26) Candidates to replace the original needed to have been with Jesus during the whole three years that Jesus was among them. That is, he needed to see Jesus’ baptism when the Heavenly Father validated Jesus’ person and work. He needed to have heard Jesus’ life-changing teachings and see His healings and other miracles. He needed to see him on the cross and to have seen Jesus walk, talk, and eat among the disciples after His resurrection.

THis was the work of the Holy Spirit in David’s life: 2 Sam 7:18 “Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”

This was the work of the Holy Spirit in Moses life: Ex 3:11 “But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?””

1 Pet 5:5-6 “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,”

This was the example of Christ himself: 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

“It is morally imperative that we purge from our minds all ignoble concepts of the Deity and let Him be the God in our minds that He is in His universe.” A. W. Tozer. The Knowledge of the Holy (p. 47). Digital Fire. Kindle Edition.

2. Is My Gospel witness more important than the freedoms i could indulge in: v 9:3-7

(v3) Paul makes his defense here against the critics… its based on his rights - his liberties.

(9:4) Do we not have the right: a state of control over someth., freedom of choice, right - potential or resource to command, control, or govern, capability, might, power. What are my rights?

I have the right to eat, even in the temple of an idol. (Ch 8) An Idol is nothing.

(9:5)I have a right to a wife (which we know he was at one time married: is either a widower, or divorced for the right reason… assumed maybe a widower because of how he words “take a believing wife” 1 Cor 7:39 Widows can remarry...”only, in the Lord.” He is speaking of somthing he could take on, but is choosing not to...

(9:6) I have a right to take financial support instead of making a living… Yet, 1 Cor 4:12 We labored among you working with our own hands. Acts 18:3 “and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.” (with Aquilla and Priscilla)

my liberty is governed by my love for an infinite God.

God is infinite:

“there cannot be two unlimited substances in the universe. : there cannot be two absolutely free beings in the universe, for sooner or later two completely free wills must collide. These attributes, to mention no more, require that there be but one to whom they belong... [Anything less] is to take away His sovereignty” (A. W. Tozer. The Knowledge of the Holy (p. 12). Digital Fire. Kindle Edition.)

Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,”

Deut 10:14 “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.”

Prov 3:9 “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce;”

Hag 2:8 “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.”

1 Cor 10:23 ““All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.”

3. Is my Gospel witness more important than the benefits I expect: v 9-10

Paul was saying, as an apostle I should expect honor, just like the Plowman, thresher, or even the stinking cows.

The threshing floor was where wighted boards would be dragged by oxen or horses over the grain to crack the grain… sometimes they would simply let the animals walkover it… the thresher is doing this with expectation that his going to get something out of it. God was even concerned with the oxen… Deut 25:4 ““You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.” The animal should get to eat while he works it.

Wages were a legal expectation from the Lord Lev 19:13 ““You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning.”

Even the Oxen had a legal expectation from the Lord. Feeding. This is not a construct of western civilization, or a tool of oppression like math… this is actually, expressed in the law of God.

Phil 3:7-11 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ... “

“The only freedom that man ever has is when he becomes a slave to Jesus Christ.”— R. C. Sproul

Conclusion: How are you going to demonstrate that the Love of God exceeds the love for the idols of your heart?

Paul was an Apostle, Paul had honor he could demand, Paul had freedoms to indulge in, there were benefits he should expect… and yet he said “nevertheless.” v

“A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true God. “Thou thoughtest,” said the Lord to the wicked man in the psalm, “that I was altogether such as one as thyself.” Surely this must be a serious affront to the Most High God before whom cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.” Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.

A. W. Tozer. The Knowledge of the Holy (p. 7).