Let me tell you a story about buying flowers for my wife –
it is Valentine’s Day after all!
Not long after Lou and I first got together I remember that
I bought her some flowers on one occasion.
It may even have been the first time I bought her flowers. The flowers were orange carnations. I bought her them out of a real desire to please her. Girls, so I’d been told, quite like flowers. And she was, she told me, genuinely pleased when I presented
them to her. Delighted even.
Since that occasion, maybe four years ago or so, I’ve spent
a fair bit of time with Lou. I’ve got to her know her better. I’ve studied her. I've tried to learn what she likes and doesn’t like. I've asked her what she likes
and doesn’t like. All so that I can please her. I’m still learning, but here’s one
thing I’ve grasped; I would never give her orange carnations now! She doesn’t really like the colour orange. She doesn’t really like carnations. She wouldn’t be that impressed now if I got her a bunch of
orange carnations. Red roses, oh yes, but not orange carnations. In order to increasingly please my wife, and show that I
love her, I need to learn what pleases her. What does it say if I never bother to find out what she
likes, and then give her those things?
It’s no different with God. If we claim to love him, then we’ll find out what delights him – so that we can do
it, so that we can walk worthy of him and please him.
Here’s the point I’m getting at: Knowledge of God (doctrine)
and showing love for God (by living for his pleasure in a manner worthy of him)
they go hand in hand.
Paul talks about this in Colossians 1:9-10. He wants Christians learn about God in order to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
in a way that pleases God.
It's an incredible privilege to be a Christian. To have been loved by God, called by the grace of God, saved
because Jesus died for you. What a tremendous privilege to be in the position of being a
child of God. And as such loved and privileged people, God calls us to
walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
Now Paul isn’t teaching here that we are to earn God’s love,
to earn the privilege of being God’s children, that our hope of heaven depends
on our worthiness. No, God has already loved and privileged us in Christ with
the certain hope of heaven, he has made us his – therefore, we should love him
and live in a way that shows that love. Because we already have been loved by the Lord and belong to the Lord,
we should walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing him. As Paul goes on to say, we should be bearing fruit (for God)
in every good work v10.
Here’s the link between the first thing Paul calls
Christians to in v9 (knowledge), and the second in v10 (walking worthy,
pleasing him). Paul prays for the Colossians to grow in the knowledge of
God’s will, so that they will do what pleases God. The whole point of finding out what God wants, is so that we
can then do what God wants. We’re called to learn about God, in order to please God.
I think it’s fair to say that doctrine, (that is, learning
about God from his Word) can get a bad name among some Christians. “It’s not what you know as a Christian that matters, it’s
what you do as a Christian.” There is of course some truth in that. A head full of knowledge about God that doesn't result in a
life full of good works is worse than pointless.
But that doesn't mean that doctrine (learning about God) doesn't matter. Learning about God equips us to please God, to show our love
for him. So if we really do love God we’ll
take learning about God seriously for the precise reason that it helps us to live for his pleasure.
I love Lou, so I won’t be giving her orange carnations
today. Red roses is what she likes.
Do you love God? Then find out more about him and live out what you've discovered. He’ll
be pleased, delighted in fact!
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