You Must Choose Life

Or You Will Have Chosen Death...

This is the third in a series of posts from Chapter 2 of Friends With God: “How Do You Love God As His Friend”. In the Second Post we discussed a common scriptural misunderstanding about how God made our heart, and also how our heart must be made pure for us to have a relationship with God. 

Choose Life That You May Live

The Word of God is sown in our heart: But that (seed that fell) on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. (Luke 8:15)

The Word of God is a seed, and our heart is the soil, and it’s up to each individual person receiving the seed to provide the environment of an honest and good heart to enable the Word to grow, through accepting the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit.

We can choose to have a stony heart, or choose to have a heart that is fertile and good for the growth of the character of God in us. This is what God told ancient Israel:

Today I am giving you a choice of two ways. And I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses of your choice. You can choose life or death. The first choice will bring a blessing. The other choice will bring a curse. So choose life! Then you and your children will live. (Deut 30:19, ERV)

God called Israel out of the world, and set before them the clear choice of life or death. He blessed them with the understanding of both ways of life. He then, obviously, expected them to decide on life as the better option!

They had the opportunity to grow in the understanding of God’s way of life. However, they could also choose to follow their own way, and not be blessed by the special relationship God had called them to.

As discussed in a previous post, from Chapter 1 of Friends With God, we are not immortal, so if we don’t choose to follow the way of eternal life we will die eternally.

God is not under any obligation to give anyone eternal life. He has given people a mortal life and if, after they have had their minds opened by God’s Holy Spirit, they choose to be righteous, kind, good and faithful people, he will give them eternal life. If they don’t want to be like God, then they don’t have to be. They will have chosen to live out their mortal life in their own way, and that will be the end of them.   

This other previous post discusses the scriptural evidence to show that we don’t have an immortal soul. Nothing about us is immortal. We must choose life, or we will have actually chosen death- for death is the only path that all mortal beings are set on. (1Cor 15:53-54)

Are You Simple, Or Wise?

The Book of Proverbs is full of admonitions to choose the way of wisdom and life, along with warnings of the dire consequences of choosing the opposite.

Wisdom asks: “How long, you simple ones, will you love simpleness, and you scorners take pleasure in your scorning, and you foolish hate knowledge? (if you) Turn at my correction: behold, I will pour forth my Spirit unto you, I will make known to you my words.
(Prov 1:20-23)

In this verse from the Old Testament, God promises to give his Spirit to those who turn from the way of sin, to provide them with much more ability to discern the truth of his Word.

But, the proverb continues- if we don’t turn to God when he corrects us…

Because I have called, and you have refused; …  I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear comes; … then will they (who have refused me) call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me early, and shall not find me. Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear (respect) of the Lord; they would (choose) none of my counsel, … For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.  (Prov 1:24-32)

We have the capacity to determine if we will listen to God, or not- and receive the outcome that we have chosen.  This Proverb, however, concludes on the positive note of:

But whoever listens to me shall dwell safely, and shall be at rest from fear of evil. (Prov 1:24-32)

We play an important role in in our own salvation by choosing to listen to God. God then promises to give us His Spirit so that we may live at rest from fear of evil.

Love Others And Gain Eternal Life

As discussed in the first post in this series, without God’s Spirit we can only understand the mere surface of God’s word. However, even with God’s Spirit, we must still put in a considerable amount of energy, before God promises to give us wisdom. We need to be growing and overcoming and learning about God’s way of life throughout our lives.

God looks at your heart to discern your motives. He is ready to reward you, even according to how you reward others. (Matt, 6:14-15, 18:21-35, James 2:3)

We are told to help those who are on the path of death:  

Deliver them that are led away to death, and redeem them that are appointed to be slain; spare not your help. But if you should say, “I know not this man”; (if you say you have no responsibility toward this person) then know that the Lord knows the hearts of all; (including your hard heart in this regard) and he that formed breath in all (of us), he knows all things, (he it is) who renders to every man according to his works. (Prov 24:11-12)

God wants us to choose to deliver those in trouble if we can, and not to close our eyes to them. As discussed in a previous post, it’s our choice to care for others, and in doing so we will be representing God’s compassionate way of life to the world.

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you?
but to do justice,
and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6:8)

God understands how to search our human heart in order to judge if we genuinely love him and our neighbour. And, as Jeremiah17:10 tells us, we will then be rewarded according to our works- be they good, or lacking in compassion and mercy and kindness. 

God will judge our heart- if we choose to do good or not, but in order to do that he must first test the heart.

God Tests The Heart

God needs to test our heart to see what sort of job we have made of it:

The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord tests the heart. (Prov 17:3)

He made our heart, which, like the rest of us, is in his image. (Gen 1:26-27)

We, however, have the capacity to choose to do good or evil, and this will affect our heart, which in turn affects our relationship with him and other people. God then rewards us with either life or death, according to what we have chosen to do.

God wants to know if we are developing a mind based on love, or on fear:

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. (1John 4:18)

We are expected by God to transform our minds away from the things of this world, and toward God’s way of life and his way of thinking:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Rom 12:2)

Please notice our role: WE are the ones who present our bodies, WE do what is reasonable, and thereby WE prove what is the will of God!

Once we have transformed our mind, then we can be conformed by God to his image. (Rom 8:29) Obviously we need God’s Spirit to give us the power to be able to transform our minds, but our part in choosing to present our bodies to God is critical in our mind’s transformation.

We are to follow the example of Christ, and in so doing we will be rewarded with becoming the Children of God the Father, and the brothers of Christ.

God is testing us by searching our heart: Just as you can see your own face reflected in water, so your heart reflects the kind of person you are. (Pro 27:19, ERV)

In the same way he also tested ancient Israel: “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” (Deut 8: 2) Their hearts were obviously not always wicked, or God would not need to have tested them to find out what they were like.  

Israel’s Example For Christians

God had a long-term plan for Israel; Israel was to be his model nation to show his way of life to the world. Many Old Testament men and women, including Abraham, Sarah, and Moses, were great examples of God’s way of life, as recorded in Hebrews 11:1-40. However, the nation as a whole failed, which prompted Christ to say:

The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” (Mat 21:43)

This new “nation” that Christ is talking about is the Church, or spiritual Israel. (1Peter 2:5-10, Gal 4:20, 1Cor 2:14-16) These are the people whom God is calling out of all nations, particularly including Israel, to become his friends. (Eph 2:11-22, 1Peter 2:5-9-10) What I am talking about is, however, absolutely not what is known as “Replacement Theology”, as it includes Israel in the new spiritual nation of God’s Church, as discussed in Chapter 8 of Friends With God: “God’s Friendship With Israel And The Church”.

God is not interested in obedience of actions only, but obedience from a pure, loving heart. Christ told us that: You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you, … These things I command you, that you love one another. (John 15:14-17) While God is commanding us to love him, he is commanding us as his friends, not as his servants.

If we do keep his commands with a pure heart, then the King will be our friend:

He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend. (Prov 22:11 ESV) 

This “King” could no doubt mean God as much as a physical King, for God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. (1Tim 6:14-15, Rev17:14, 19:16)

If we choose to have a pure heart, we will have a deep and sincere friendship with God,- yet if we are deceived into thinking that our heart is somehow always desperately wicked, then we undermine our ability to have a loving relationship with the creator.

The reality is that you do have the capacity to choose to have either a good heart, or an evil heart, and whatever state your heart is in, it then directs your actions and your way of thinking.

Once we have chosen to do good, and chosen to have a good heart, then God goes onto the next step and tests your heart, by putting you through various trials. He may test you by false teachers, even those people who claim to be prophets and can actually perform miracles:

If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other God’s -- which you have not known -- 'and let us serve them’, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.” (Deut 13:1-5)

Many similar admonitions against false prophets, who perform miracles to deceive the elect, are also given in the New Testament. (Matt 7:15-23, Matt 24:11, Matt 24:23-25, Mark 13:21-24, Acts 13:6)

God allows such miracle working false teachers to do their deceptive works, in order to test us, to see if we have chosen to have a good, pure, sincere, and honest heart.

Being Lazy Is Not Having A Pure Heart

God is very interested in the sort of job we are doing on our heart. We must be very diligent, for being lazy is not having a pure heart: Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it springs the issues of life. (Prov 4:23)

He did not make our heart wicked or deceitful; he made it capable of loving him. But we must not be slack in living his way of life. God expects us to put significant and ongoing effort into understanding and remembering his truth, and to living a righteous life. We need to do this in order to protect our heart from going astray:

Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself (from sin), lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. (Deut 4:9)

Such a diligent, motivated attitude is similar to the requirements for gaining wisdom, as we have seen in Proverbs 2:1-5. If we are lazy, we will never please God.

Laziness is addressed in some detail in Matthew chapter 25, where there are three parables telling us that being lazy will stop us from entering in the Kingdom of God. Although I have summarized the main points below, please take the time to read these parables in full.

The first parable is about the ten maidens (or virgins) who were waiting to meet the bridegroom. (Matt 25:1- 13) The bridegroom was delayed till midnight, by which time they had all fallen asleep. When they were woken, those who were lazy had no extra oil, so they had to go and get some as their lamps were going out. While they were gone the bridegroom came and collected the five wise maidens, who had been prepared with extra oil, and took them into the wedding supper. When the foolish eventually got back from buying oil, they were locked out.

The lesson is that the foolish were too lazy to consider having more oil than what was simply in their lamp. We are warned to be ready for such a basic contingency, by having extra resources in case things don’t go exactly as expected, because you do not know either the day or the hour in which the Son of Man comes.  (Matt 25:13) 

The second parable (verses 14-30) also shows that God expects us to grow and increase in the gifts that he has given us, represented by money, or talents of gold in this story. Being lazy by just keeping what he has given us safe, is not an acceptable option.

Like any investor, God wants us to work hard to make what he has given us grow, so that we have something extra to give back to him. (John 15:2-8)

The third story (verses 31-46) is about doing good to people, and in doing so you are showing love to God, as God puts himself in their position:

Then He (Christ) shall answer them (the lazy servants), saying, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these (who needed your help), you did not do it to Me. 

God does not want a lazy, begrudging attitude whenever you do something for others, but a generous, diligent, and loving heart that motivates you out of love and compassion.

God Is Always Testing You

These parables are telling us that God is testing us by the good or bad choices we make, and the motivations behind those choices. Even so, God understands your weaknesses, he will not test you beyond what you can handle:

No temptation has taken you but what is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the temptation also will make a way to escape, so that you may be able to bear it.  (1Cor 10:13)

God does not promise that you will have a life without difficulties, indeed it will be similar to what other people go through. But with the test he will make a way out of it. Does that mean we just have to search to find this way out? Perhaps, but the verse continues to say, so that you may be able to bear it.

While God may show you a solution to the test, it may be simply to persevere to the other side of it, while trusting in him! 

Those who fail to have a willing heart, as shown in these three parables, will not have been tested beyond their ability. They will, however, have shown what is truly in their heart. They will have demonstrated that they have chosen not to live God’s way of life.

We are told to love God with all our heart, so if we don’t grow it means that we have not fully realised what God is like, and have not grown to love Him with all our heart. We have settled for a very lukewarm approach to our commitment to God.

God is not playing games; he is absolutely serious when he says that you must be willing to lay down your life. Yet many fail a long time before such a dire test is given.

God always gives us plenty of chances to repent and turn to him, but eventually he will determine that your heart is not sincere about his way of life, and you will not inherit eternal life:

He, that being often reproved, hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. (Prov 29:1)

If we continue to fail to choose God’s way, after he has constantly corrected us, then we have chosen to harden our heart, and there is no remedy for us.

We have then failed the tests of life. We will die the death of the mortal man and we will not be given the gift of eternal life.

You have to choose to follow God, or he won’t want to live with you forever. Why should he?

In the next post in this series, we will see that when God made mankind, he delighted in them- for we all have the potential to become the very children of God. (Prov 8:30-31, Psalm 82:6, John10:34-36)