Acts 8:20-24
Your highest calling is to love! God first and most of us who are called
Christian do not know how to do what is commanded of us; “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord
is one. You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy
6:4-5 ESV) One day a lawyer ask a
question of Jesus, not for knowledge, but hoping to test Him, and this was the
question: “Teacher,
which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first
commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
(Matthew 22:37-40 ESV)
I have confessed to the Lord that I do not yet know how to
love Him in that way, and with that said is it possible to love my neighbor in
the way God requires without first loving the Author of Love. Then the question come to my mind, does that
in anyway restrict or limit God’s love for me, and the answer is a profound no,
my like of understanding of how to love God does not constrain God’s love for
me. We Christians would, if possible, constrict
the ways God shows love in these ways; blessing both in material goods as well
as health, but discipline and rebuke are also ways God show love to His
children.
That is why we are wise to not listen to man, but to look
into the holy Bible to seek the ways of God.
In the Proverbs we are told the following: “My son, do not despise the LORD's
discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.” (Proverbs
3:11-12 ESV) Does the Bible speak more
than once and the answer is a strong yes; “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses
you as sons? “My son, do not regard
lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and
chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:5-6 ESV)
You may have never looked at Simon the Magician as a recipient
of God’s love, but first God so loved Simon the magician who was passing
himself off as “the power of God” that he sent Philip down to a city of Samaria
and proclaimed Christ raised. Simon
believed but it so important to understand that our flesh has been taught like
a birddog to get its needs met outside of Christ, and so Simon as a believer in
Christ, looks to his flesh and so God arranged Peter and John to come and not
only bring the gift of the Holy Spirit but to confront Simon. Rebuking a brother/sister under the direction
of God is an act of love, God’s love.
This is doctor Luke’s account: “Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was
given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money,
saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may
receive the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 8:18-19 ESV) That is an act of flesh, Simon is looking for
a way to make an income off the power of God, and God shows love in this way,
He has Peter rebuke and provide discipline.
This is the account: “But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you,
because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have
neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.
Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if
possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are
in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” WOW, but
listen to what took place after the rebuke; And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that
nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” (Acts 8:20-24 ESV)
God has shown His love to me often in the blessing of health,
and stuff that has made life enjoyable, and He also has shown His love by rebuking,
from both Christian and non-Christian, He will always discipline His kids.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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