Heartily part 2
Our key verse for this Rant series is Colossians 3:23, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." Yesterday we looked at what "heartily" means. It means the origin of things... and breath. Doing what you do--with every breath you take and every move you make--because it's in your heart to do it. That's where love comes from. That's why we do what we do (or at least it should be). Today we are looking at "as to the Lord." And the first thing I want to say about it is... TO does not mean FOR. This idea that "My boss is a carpenter" has to go. Jesus is not my boss. Jesus is my life. I'm not doing things for Him. I'm not trying to earn anything from Him. I'm madly in love with Him because He's madly in love with me, and I'm doing things AS TO Him. Which means, "And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'" (Matthew 25:40 NLT). Whatever you do TO man, you are really doing to God. That's the distinction that's being made. We don't treat people "how they deserve to be treated." We treat people the way we would treat the One who created us. The lover of our soul. Our heavenly Father. The bridegroom to our Lamb's wife. All these different pictures of loving relationships. That's how we are to treat one another. Because that's how God treats us. It's the "ought to" principle that John wrote about so often. 1 John 3:16, for example, "We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters." This is also the New Commandment. John 13:34 (NLT), "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other." That love that God poured into us when Jesus poured HIMSELF into us fills us to overflowing and we return it to Him by giving it away to each other. As to Him. Because it IS to Him. Because as He is, so are we in this world. We are His body. He is our true identity. All of us. Collectively. So--and this might SEEM selfish, but it's not--when we love each other we are really loving ourselves. Because we're all in this together. Because helping you HELPS me. Loving you is how I experience love. It grows when it's shared. I'm not loving you FOR God. I'm not trying to earn rewards or avoid trouble. I'm loving you as TO God. He loved us and gave His life for us. He gave us everything He was and everything He had. And that's how we ought to love each other. Again--not FOR Him. But TO Him. How can you love a God you've never seen if you don't love your neighbor who you have seen? I'm telling you. We love Him BY loving each other. We do what we do because it's in our hearts to do it. LOVE is in our hearts. And we do it AS TO the Lord. We're in a love relationship with Him. And He's in all of us. So when we see things correctly--because the light of the world is shining--we begin to understand that we are in a love relationship with each other. And if I'm doing what I'm doing TO the Lord, then it really doesn't have anything to do with what anybody else is doing. But that's tomorrow's Rant so we'll save that for tomorrow. For today, just let me leave you with this thought: God loves you. You love Him back... BY loving people. You do what you do TO him. Not FOR Him!