"Loving God First" -3

"Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His eyesight." (Psalms 18:24) Please forgive me for being stuck in this verse for another day, but I needed to address something that God has spoken into my heart about the real importance of loving God first; something that we tend to sometimes overlook in our busy lives, even in our busy lives that are in service to Him. As with those that Jesus addressed in the letter to the Church of Ephesus, they were busy doing those things that many would consider to be righteous actions of love and surrender; however, in their endeavor to remain righteous and true to that which they were called into, they left out something very important in that service, and it was that which made them what they were; it was the primary ingredient in that which had placed them in the service that they were so busy at doing, and that ingredient was love. Let me see if I can get this right, even though I need to put it in the most simplistic way possible; at least without messing it up too much. What I believe that David is getting at within this verse, is something based upon a position that he has been placed in, making him righteous and having clean hands in God's eyesight; because it could not have been based upon his own righteousness, seeing that this song was written near the end of his life. This position that he was placed within was only available to him by his love for God, and his love for God is only made possible by him realizing God's love for him. Nothing else really matters at all without love being the basis for our actions, whether they be actions that display love, or our sacrifices that are meant to display our service unto God; if love is not the motivation of our hearts, then we are missing the boat; and in case you do not know what that means, it means that you missed the vessel that was to carry you on your way. As always, and in every verse that begins with the word Therefore, we must ask ourselves, What is it there for? And in so doing, we look at those verses which were written before to understand the therefore; and as we have seen in the previous verses, David's position was not due to anything that he had done, but was based upon the Righteousness of God having placed him in that position. With that, we can observe the meaning of the word "recompensed", that was the same word he used in verse twenty, that was also used to express his reward for righteousness; a word which means to be converted, or saved from death, death being the way of the curse and condemnation. Truly, those within the Church of Ephesus were not rewarded in their righteousness, for they were still missing out on eating of the tree of life, the tree of life being the representation of eternal life. So what was the difference between these two cases that made recompense lacking in one and not the other? Was it not the realization of God's love for the sinner in his state of sin??? "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"! What that translates to, is that God loved us, not for what we can or cannot do to please him, but He loved us regardless of what we are, and He proved that upon the cross! When Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do", He was not just speaking for those that had crucified and mocked Him, but He was speaking also for you and I, and for all of our sins that we commit against Him. In essence, what that means, is that Jesus forgave us of our sin against Him before we even had a chance to ask Him for forgiveness! Now, what kind of love is that? Unconditional love is a love that is not based upon the actions or the response to that love, but is based solely upon the virtue of love, without any strings attached to it. That is the love of God for us, and why it is such a love that captivates our hearts. That is why John adds that additional meaning to God's love at the end of 1 John 2:2, when he says, "and not our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world". And why Jesus, when speaking to Nicodemus about the Love of God, said, "whosoever believeth", because it is not a matter of our righteousness by which we are recompensed, but upon our acceptance of His love for us, and by accepting His love, there is nothing more for us to do then to love Him back...