The Law of the Jungle

Series: Into the Wild
August 10, 2008

...Folks, you want to know the real law of the jungle, the real point of God’s law? It’s not- if you do this, then I’m going to love you and be your God. The whole point of the law was God saying I love you, I am your God, and I want you to be able to love as I have loved you. Or to put it another way, the whole point of the law, the reason he gave it to us, is not so that we can earn his love, but to confirm his love. He doesn’t give is the law to earn his love, but to confirm his love. The law isn’t a step by step process of earning God’s love- it is confirmation of his love for us. And as confirmation of his love for us, it invites into relationship with Him, to receive and give the love he offers.

You see, God knows this- earning people’s love isn’t a system that really works well. God was smart enough to understand, long before we ever figured it out, that the best way to build a relationship is not to require someone to earn your love, but simply to give your love to them. God just knew that. He knew the best way to have us love him, was to give us his love. He knew the best way to build a relationship was to start with love.

We don’t get this yet. We keep working the system backwards- if you do certain things for me, I might love you back. The whole conditional love program. Try that with your wife here this morning, tell her, I’m going to give you a list of rules, about 10 in all. Come up with your own- if you do my laundry and cook my meals. Give up all your hobbies and take up mine. No more sweat pants, only mini skirts and heels…And if you follow these rules perfectly, I will then love you in return. I think that’s a really good system and how we should all approach our relationships. We’ll just all put out our list of 10 rules, and then whenever anybody wants to loves us or be loved by us, it will be very simple- all they have to do is follow our list of rules, and we’ll love them!

Listen to the sermon at our website, www.connectionschurch.ca or read the whole sermon here.