I heard a very touching song the other day called, "Honesty," by Rodney Atkins. It has the subtitle, "Write me a list"; that is what I'd like to talk about with you today--the list that is spoken of in the song. You see, the song begins with a husband and wife speaking to one another across a restaurant table; but it's not a pleasant situation--they are talking about divorce. He tells her, "Just think it over, and write me a list..." He wants her to write out a list of those things she most wants of what they own. He wants to begin deciding who is going to get what from all those years that they have had together. So she took a napkin, and began to write down one by one all those things that she wanted most from him. When she finished, she placed it in his hand; and he thought about all those things that they owned. He wondered just how much she would claim--how much she would expect him to have to give up. He thought about the new car, their house, the land, and so many other things that would be hard to leave. It never occurred to him that the list she wrote down--those things she wanted most from him--would go like this:
"Honesty, sincerity, tenderness and trust; a little less time for the rest of the world, and more for the two of us. Kisses each morning, 'I love you's at night, just like it used to be...the way life was when you were in love with me." The thing she most wanted was him, and his love for her...just like it used to be. There need be no divorce; she didn't want the "stuff"; she wanted him.
Well, that song got me to thinking about God. Several times in scripture, God described his relationship with the children of Israel in terms of the marriage relationship. For instance, in Ezekiel 16, He began describing how He had raised up the nation of Israel from humble beginnings. Just like an abandoned baby, uncared for and helpless, Israel began small and weak; yet God made it into a great multitude of people. Then when the time was right, God took Israel for His very own, as a husband takes a wife. We read in Ezek 16:8, "'...I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine,' declares the Lord GOD." So, the covenant relationship that existed between God and Israel was very much like the marriage relationship. Keep your finger in this chapter, but turn to Mal 2:16.
Something else we find in scripture is how God feels about that marriage relationship being severed. "'...I hate divorce,' says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'and him who covers his garment with wrong,' says the LORD of hosts. 'So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.'" God hates divorce; and He doesn't take kindly to those that would break that covenant for just any reason.
But like any other husband, God expected Israel to be faithful to Him. He expected her to honor Him as her only love; and so He said, "You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..." (Ex 20:3-5) There is nothing wrong with godly jealousy; a husband should be jealous for his wife.
In fact, what we find is that, while God hates divorce--that breaking of faith, or covenant--one also breaks faith by committing sexual immorality; for instance having an affair. That being the case, God made an exception for the one who's spouse has been unfaithful to them. Jesus said, "...whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery." (Mt 19:9) It is sin for someone to divorce their spouse--unless their spouse has committed sexual immorality, or fornication.
And that is exactly what the children of Israel did. God exclaimed, "You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!" (Ezek 16:32) They were serving other gods; they were offering sacrifices to idols that could not see, that could not hear, and could not love them as the God of Heaven did, because they were not true gods. Yet, by their behavior, they were committing spiritual adultery; so we read, "...thus says the Lord GOD, 'I will also do with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.'" (Ezek 16:59) God was going to divorce them.
But it didn't have to be that way. Just as in the song that we're considering, there didn't have to be a divorce. What He wanted was that "Honesty, sincerity, tenderness and trust..." All God asked was that they turn away from the false gods, and return to Him; and that their behavior would reflect that change. So we read in Jer 22:3,4: "Thus says the LORD, 'Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. For if you men will indeed perform this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David's place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people.'" They would once again be his people. Yet if they did not return, God would reject them; and he continues in verses 8,9, "Many nations will pass by this city [Jerusalem]; and they will say to one another, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this great city?' Then they will answer, 'Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.'"
Sadly, they didn't turn back to God; Jerusalem was destroyed, and the nation fell. They did not love Him the way that they were supposed to love him, the way that is described in Deut 6:5: "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." They had forgotten God and their covenant with Him, and God "divorced" them.
Scripture also describes the relationship between Christ and the church in the terms of a marriage relationship. In Eph 5:25-27, we read, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." The church is to be presented to Christ as a beautiful bride, all dressed in pure white--no spots, no blemishes--and it is all because Jesus loved her, and gave his life for her.
While the church, in that grand sense, will certainly be faithful to Christ, the same is not true of local congregations. A local church which, at one time, was standing firm for the truth, and clinging to Christ, can lose its zeal. Speaking of the church in Ephesus, in Rev 2:2-5, Jesus said, "...I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent."
In the song, "Honesty," that we are considering, the woman asked for things to be "just like it used to be...the way life was when you were in love with me." What she wanted most was for her husband to love her again--and to show it. She didn't care about the house, or the land, or any such thing; what she wanted most was him. And here, in Rev 2:2-5, Jesus was calling those in the church in Ephesus back--back to that love that they had at the first. There were many things they did that were right, and Jesus hadn't forgotten it: they toiled, they persevered, they were intolerant of evil men, they rejected false apostles, and worked hard; but they lacked in the most important of areas: they had grown cold in their love. I don't know why it would be that they would do so much and not have that love for Christ; it may be that they were doing all they did mechanically, or out of habit. But the fact of the matter is that all that work wouldn't keep them from being rejected if they didn't remember from where they had fallen, and return to their first love.
And so it is with the Christian individually; Paul wrote in 2 Cor 11:2, "...I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."
If you are a Christian, you made a decision to put Christ first in your life. In a very real sense you made a covenant to belong to Christ, and no other. Paul describes what happened in that decision in Gal 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
But just as the church in Ephesus as a group had left it's first love, you can, too. Have you lost that zeal that you once had--that excitement, that fire that you had when you were first baptized into Christ? Do you no longer sing the songs of redemption, and of heaven, with the same fervor that you once did? Does taking part in the Lord's supper no longer bring the same emotions of great sadness and great joy, mixed together? If so, you need to return to your first love; simply taking part in the worship and doing good deeds aren't going to be enough in the end. We have to have a love for God.
In Mk 12:28-34, a scribe asked Jesus what the most important command in the Law was. Jesus replied, "...'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.' The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe agreed, saying, "...TO LOVE [GOD] WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE UNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." The passage continues, noting that the scribe had answered well. He was right--God expects our hearts, not just our hands; and if that is all we are going to give Him, we will find ourselves separated eternally from him, divorced from his presence for all time.
If you are not a Christian, you find yourself separated from God even now, because your sins have made a wall of separation between you and Him. But that separation doesn't have to be eternal; you don't have to spend an eternity in Hell, away from the love and mercy of God. You can become a Christian, and receive that mercy. Speaking to Christians in Gal 3:26,27, Paul said, "...you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you can be baptized into Christ today, and have those sins that separate you from God all washed away.
You know, in that song we've been considering, the thing that the wife most wanted was her husband, and his love for her. That is exactly what God wants: he wants us, and our love. How is it that we can be so emotionally touched by a fictional song, and not by the truth found in the Bible?
