ODJ: letting go
February 14, 2011
If you love your father or mother more than you love Me, you are not worthy of being Mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than Me, you are not worthy of being Mine (v.37).
READ: Matthew 10:32-42
Li Yue fell hard for Hou You Jing. They were from the same province, shared a love for badminton and western movies, and—as if by fate—met while working second shift at a microchip processor company in Shenzhen. Li Yue couldn’t stand to be apart from Hou You Jing, and she didn’t notice that her constant calls and weekend plans were beginning to smother him. He slowly pulled away—finally telling her that he was ending their relationship. Li Yue was devastated. In desperation, she pleaded, “But I love you!”
But was it truly love? Jonathan Edwards explained that we truly love another person only if we love them first in God. Any love that doesn’t begin with God is actually a form of selfishness. We love ourselves rather than others, our family rather than another family, or our city or country rather than another town or nation. Our circle of love may widen to include everyone on planet Earth, yet we’ll still prefer the people on our planet to the possible inhabitants of others. Edwards explained that “true virtue consists in love to Being [his term for God] in general” and only afterward “to any one particular being.”
This is partially Jesus’ point when He commands us to love Him more than our closest family and friends (Matthew 10:37). He isn’t merely warning against idolatry, but He’s also telling us how to fully enjoy our close relationships. When we love others more than God, we inevitably ask more from them than what they can deliver. Our neediness will eventually suffocate them and our relationship.
Jesus said that whatever we cling to we will lose, but “if you give up your life for Me, you will find it” (v.39). As the saying goes, “If you love someone, set them free”—in God. —Mike Wittmer
How can you tell if you’re putting another person, hobby, or thing in the place reserved for God alone? How might you properly enjoy those things as God’s gift to you?
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