July 1, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“This is the burden of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi: ‘I have loved you,’ says the LORD. But you ask, ‘How have You loved us?‘” (Malachi 1.1-2a)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

Do we really understand “true love.” For those familiar with the movie “The Princess Bride,” you will remember the words Westley spoke when he was mostly dead. He said, “True love.” The question was “What is so important that you are willing to live for?” All too often we hear people declare what they are willing to die for. Jesus said, “No greater love is there than this that a person would lay down their own life for the sake of another.” (John 15.13) This is what He did for all the world- He laid down His life for us that we might become the righteousness of God. His death meant life for us eternally in peace and joy with God our Father. However, let me challenge you with this thought: in order to die the kind of death which would save the life of another, you must truly live. Remember what Jesus said, “God is not a God of the dead but of the living.” (Luke 20.38) We serve, as did Jesus Christ, a living God who cannot be contained by our thoughts, machinations or creations. When God declared that those who live in righteousness would not presume to worship God as an idol, with idols or with graven images, He was addressing the identity Himself of being a “living” God. He was, is and will always be interactive, interpersonal and instructional. He was, is and will always be profound, productive and proxemic. There is nothing and no one like our God!

As the word is given to Israel’s people, both foreign and domestic, it speaks to the very covenant of God to humanity. It is expressed with the enduring nature and character of God which is love. God’s love is the seed out of which the fruit of love is born in each of us. How we cultivate that field or orchard or flock or community using the natural resource of love which is God-generated and God-delivered, is up to us. That means our version of love can be easily corrupted and deconstructed because we overlay it with our own desires of the flesh. No matter how spiritual we may think we are, no matter how wise we may think we are, no matter how good and righteous we may be unless we abide strictly within the confines of the Holy Spirit (the confessor and professor of God’s love) we are influenced by the flesh. Herein lies the ethic which Paul proposes about denying the flesh and putting on the Spirit. It is here where even the Law as it was given to Moses and thus to the generations to follow among the Hebrews and the world in which they moved as the chosen of God, became corrupt because its application spoke more to the “wants” of people declaring them to be the “needs” of the people. In this regard, “needs” are the basics of life; whereas “wants” are the accessories which humans desire to adorn themselves. It is here where God speaks to the people of the covenant of love through Malachi.

What does God say? He began, “I have loved you.” It is spoken in the sense of “beyond time.” By that I mean, God has loved us from before we were created and will always love us even after the completion of time itself (as if that were to ever happen…God’s love is eternal without beginning or end.) When God declares “I have loved you,” He is speaking to justice, mercy, grace, forgiveness, covenant, challenge and life. The life God speaks of is the authentic life in which He first created humanity in the very image of His Son. If we want to know what His Son looked like, we do not need a photograph or artist rendering. All of that would pale in comparison to His true and authentic image. If we want to know what Jesus really looked like, we need only to immerse ourselves into the gospel story of the One who was King of kings, Lord of lords, mighty God, everlasting Father and Prince of Peace upon whose shoulders has rested the governance of the world. The spirit will bring to mind the pictures of Jesus for each of us. It is not in his externals that we find His true image but in His heart, mind and spirit. And this is where we should find our own image as well in spirit and in truth. And in the gospel of John we hear specifically there very message and heart of the gospel as the image of righteousness which brings us to salvation and salvation to us. It says “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son in order that those who would believe in Him and on Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3.16) Yes, God has loved us!

What then of the burden God speaks of to Malachi and to the people? It is the burden of unbelief, ingratitude and incredulity by which the people whom God has demonstrated His great and true love respond. The burden of the word, the weight of its purpose, is to address and transform what the people dare to ask of God and Malachi into repentance and the pursuit of living righteously (in favor with God) instead of living in unrighteousness (out of favor with God or daring to live as if they could without God.) In short, “How could they say it knowing what God has done for them?” Of course, the spirit of their retort probably resembles the following: What have you done for me lately? Or more precisely, perhaps, Why haven’t You done what I want You to do for me? Here is where we will find ourselves in juxtaposition in the prophetic work of Malachi over the next few weeks. Shalom.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works leading others to call Jesus Lord in faith, hope and love. AMEN.