Misguided

Have you purchased an item you dreamed of owning only to later discover it could not do what you imagined it would do? I have invested money only to find out later it was not as great as expected. How did that make you feel?… angry or sick? I was SICK!!

I fear some have prayed a ‘repentance prayer’ falsely assuming salvation is comprised of mentally accepting Jesus lived, died, and rose again. Without intrinsic sorrow, they express no heart-felt love for God, nor a desire to read the Bible to discover more about Him. Life would then proceed as usual. It is strange how we can understand putting a quarter into a pop machine does not result in getting a 20oz, Mountain Dew. Yet we fail to understand why checking off a shortlist of religious activities does not result in what is far more valuable than a 20oz, Mountain Dew. Regardless, the misguided individuals will eventually discover their assumption of salvation was severely misguided and be angry or very sick.

In the ancient near-east, treaties were made between nations. One such was a suzerain-vassal treaty composed of a stronger state (suzerain) entering into a kinsman-type treaty with a weaker country (vassal). The suzerain would provide family protections, provisions, and guidance, as well as to allow their vassal sovereignty to control their internal and foreign affairs. In return, the vassal provided consummate loyalty. Since a human is incapable of serving two masters, for a vassal to take more than one suzerain would be tantamount to treason.

We read in Exodus 20, especially in Deuteronomy 5, of God making such a covenant with the Hebrews. Those passages begin with, “I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery Exodus 20:2, NLT2). The next verse reads of the vassal side, “You must not have any other god but me. Exodus 20:3, NLT2). We also read of all God would provide for them, much of which He had already been providing, and what having no other god but Him looked like. While at first appearance it looks like a legal arrangement, if probed more deeply, you discover God was entering a loving kinship type relationship with them. In this relationship, God insisted they love and worship Him with all their hearts. If they would do this, they would live a long, blessed life—but a cursed life if they broke this loving relationship.

Jesus often referred to that relational bond. Most precisely, He said the greatest commandment was not in how they did or did not behave but rather the kinship relationship factor. 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 (Mark 12:30, ESV). It is noteworthy that when Christ later addressed the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4 (ESV), He commended their behavior but when on to say, I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love [close kinship] you had at first.He followed that by pointing out the profound consequences for breaking that side of the covenant.  

Since a love-attachment bond is so essential to salvation, how can we awaken misguided ones to the fact God’s merciful provisions flow only out of intimate relationship and not out of rhetoric or empty ritual? The Bible repeatedly stresses how God insists on our pure love for Him, not just impersonally following a list of rules. Overlooking that vital element will cause deep frustration, anger, or sadness when they finally realize their life had been lived based on misguided assumptions, not truth? Is it possible for you to lovingly reach out to those in your sphere of influence? Could you offer thought-provoking questions that might awaken them to the fact eternal life is based on close relationship, not impersonal religion or tradition? I am sure you want the best for them too.

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