"Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing." (Deuteronomy 10:15-18)How does one earn the favor and love of God? He can't! The love of God is not earned, it's bestowed. God loved the people of Israel, not because of their righteousness, for they were a rebellious and idolatrous people, not because of their stature and social status, for they were poor shepherds sold into slavery, but He loved then because he desired to. They did not earn His love, rather He chose them for His love.
So it is for us today, we receive His love, not because we are worthy, but because we are chosen; chosen to be the recipients of His matchless love. "I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me." (John 17:23) As the Father loves the Son, so He has loved us, not because of anything we have done, but simply because He has chosen to love us. It is His desire to lavish His love upon us, and not only us, but His love extends to all. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16) God did not love just some, but all, even the whole world. The love of God is not reserved for a select few but is available to all who will receive it. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13)
How does one response to such an unmerited love? "You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen." (Deuteronomy 10:20-21) The word that Moses uses to exhort us to "cling" to the Lord is the same word that is used in Genesis 2:24 where God instructs husbands to "leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh." We are to join ourselves
to the Lord as a husband joins himself to his wife. We are to cling to Him and Him alone. Just as a husband cannot cleave to his wife without first separating himself from all other rivals, so we must separate ourselves from this world and all that it has to offer that we may cling fast to the Lord. Let us today chose, as our response to His boundless love for us, to leave behind the world and cling to the Lord.
David Robison
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