Steadfast Love
Psalms 101:1-2 ESV
“I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O Lord, I will make music.
I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?”
Steadfast love (or mercy) is unwavering, committed, persistent,
and dedicated. It is loyal and faithful, not unfaithful, and not adulterous. It
is trustworthy. It is also goodness and lovingkindness in doing what is
beneficial for others, i.e., according to God and to his word.
Justice is fairness, righteousness (what is right in the
eyes of God), honesty, integrity, uprightness, honor, and reliability. And
integrity is honesty and adherence to moral values and to incorruptibility. And
it includes decency and goodness, and excludes evil, wickedness, and immorality.
These qualities should be evident in the lives of those professing
faith in Jesus Christ. This is how we should live day in and day out. This is
how we should conduct our lives in all our relationships, in all our dealings,
and in everything that we do and say. We should live our lives above reproach.
Immorality, adultery, lust, impurity, lying, cheating,
stealing, gossiping and the like should have no part in our lives. They should
not be what we practice, but righteousness should be what we practice. And we
should love one another, for love does no harm to its neighbor.
Walk with Integrity
Psalms 101:2-3 ESV
“I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;
I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.”
If we are walking with integrity of heart within our houses
or anywhere else, we are people who are honest, trustworthy, faithful, decent, and
pure. We are who we say we are no matter who we are with or where we are and no
matter the circumstances. We don’t blend into our environments.
We can be trusted. Lying is not our practice. We don’t live
to deceive others and trickery is not something we do, either. We don’t play
mind games with others to take advantage of them or to try to fool them, but we
are straight with people, but kind and considerate, too.
We are not hypocrites who are professing one thing with our
lips while we do the opposite. We don’t play religion. And we don’t talk above
what we live. It doesn’t mean we are perfect people, but that righteousness is
what we practice, not sin. We don’t try to look good outwardly while sinning in
secret.
We are sincere in our walks of faith in Jesus Christ. Our
desire is for him to do his will. We submit to Jesus as Lord (owner-master),
and we don’t deny him or ignore him and go our own way. For, we live lives
which are separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being made
into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
We guard our hearts and minds against all that is evil and against
what is of this wicked world, and we determine that we will not allow our minds
or our eyes to think on or to look at what is evil, what is sinful, what is
immoral, what has the potential to lead us astray, and that which is just junk.
Those Who Fall Away
Psalms 101:3-4 ESV
“I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
A perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.”
We are not to hate people, but we are to hate evil deeds. We
are to hate the evil workings of those who make evil their practice, whether
they are not professed believers in Jesus or whether they are professed
believers in Jesus. We should grieve over sin, not placate it, and not
encourage it.
Too many people today professing faith in Jesus Christ do not
hate sin, but they embrace it, thinking that God’s grace covers it all so that
they can continue in sin now without guilt. But the Scriptures do not teach
that. They teach that if we continue in sin, we will die in our sins.
Many are teaching that faith in Jesus Christ merely means
your sins are forgiven so you can now go to heaven when you die, but they
forget that Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to
his righteousness. He died to deliver us from our slavery to sin, not to give
us permission to continue in sin guilt-free (1 Pet 2:24; Rom 6:1-23).
One of the modern teachings is to tell people that once they
believe in Jesus that God can no longer see our sin, but that all he sees is Jesus.
Scripture also does not teach that, which is evident by the writings of the
apostles where they continually told believers they needed to forsake their
sins.
These modern teachers also tell people who have professed
faith in Jesus Christ that if they are sinning and they are feeling guilty
about their sin that they are just to claim who they are in Christ and that is
to help alleviate the guilt, as though Jesus died merely so we would no longer
feel guilty about sinning against God and against others.
Too much of what is being taught today in the name of Jesus
and in the name of his gospel is perverted, and it is diluted, and it is
adulterated so as to appease the flesh of humans and to give them permission to
continue in deliberate and habitual sin against God without guilt or remorse.
But this should have no place in our lives! We are to know
(experientially) nothing of evil. Sin should no longer cling to us. It should
no longer control us, but righteousness should be our practice, and love should
be what rules our hearts, and obedience to our Lord should be what we live by.
And we should not pacify other professers of faith in Jesus
Christ, giving them the impression that their sins no longer matter to God.
For, the Scriptures teach that we are what we practice, and if sin is our
practice, we will die in our sins. We won’t have eternal life with God.
Therefore, integrity should be what we practice. We should
walk in love and justice. We should walk in the ways of the Lord. We should
tell the truth. We should not be hypocrites, professing or mouthing one thing
while we are secretly living another life. And sin should not be what clings to
us.
Seek
the Lord
An
Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based
off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.
“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”
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