Having vs participating in God's love

Having and participating in God's love are two separate things (though not unrelated). 

The tension between these is throughout scripture.

Having God's love is based solely on (secured by) the faithfulness/work of another i.e. on Christ's faithful obedience and sacrifice. 

*Nothing we do can add to or take away from this. 

This is complete/finished.

Participating in God's love is based on our faithfulness/work. 

**Only what we do determines this. 

This is ongoing and never finished.

Having his love is like owning a bank account with unlimited funds, available to you at any and all times.

Participating in his love is making a withdrawal and using it to honor/love someone (whether that be God, someone else or ourselves).

We can have the former and never experience the latter but we can never have (participate in) the latter without the former.

And

We will never truly and fully know (experience) the former until we ***fully participate in the latter.

__________________________________________________________

*how can it since it's not based on our efforts to begin with.

**this is not to say we do this in our own power but only in the power of the Spirit. For several posts addressing the Spirit see the following:

Spirit driven

The empowering of Spirit

Operating in Spirit...mystical or practical?

Defining terms-flesh-spirit 

For a post discussing our "work" click here.

***we will not fully participate in this in this life but only begin to. The degree to which we do now, determines the degree to which we experience him in eternity.

Faith is contageous

Faith is not only necessary for living but contagious. We want to believe because we want to be cared for/valued. Belief is infectious because it is tied to our need for love. We are drawn to love like a moth is to flame/light.

This is why we are so easily allured to promises that can (or may) not truly deliver. Though we like to think our views are based solely on reality/truth, they are based more on belief and hope then irrefutable facts. Belief that what we seek for life, it truly life long term. 

However we are quick to trust and depend only on anything and everything except God, who alone promises true life long term (i.e. eternal life). Why? Two reasons. 

1. We can't control God. We don't like trusting in what we can not control. Trust and control are opposite's.

2. What God offers is often not immediate but a long term solution. What we want however is immediate reward, resolution or relief. Long-term reward or relief requires greater trust and patience and is outside our control (eating a treat or watching a movie on the other hand [or whatever is our "drug" of choice] is more immediate and within our control).

This is also why people are so emotional/passionate (even volatile at times) about their views (e.g. religion and politics); they are tied to their need for love, a sense of well-being, purpose and meaning. In effect if you mess with my beliefs you are messing with me, my identity and my sense of value i.e. our belief system is more emotionally than intellectually based.

This is also key to how you change someone's mind. If you wish to win someone to your way of viewing things, you treat them with more value (love) then their current belief system offers or provides. Love (meaning/purpose/value) after all is what we are really after, not facts.     

Trust and "gathering facts"

The reason we must trust is we are limited in the facts we can gather i.e. we are finite. We don't know everything and can not be everywhere to observe all that is "out there" to observe. Much of our views are based on what we don't know but simply must believe (trust) is so (we know what we know, but it's what we don't know that is our challenge). This is why someone's commitment to a particular view may seem irrational to others who don't hold that view while perfectly rational to those that do.

For example, I don't see God, therefore I don't believe he exists. And since he doesn't I am not accountable to a Creator and free to choose how I choose to conduct my life

OR

I believe there is a God because I see design, beauty and love in and around me indicating there is some kind of higher meaning and purpose to life. A higher purpose suggests a higher will (or Being) then my own. 

Neither of these views can be proven in the absolute sense due to our finiteness, so we interpret them to mean what we choose to believe.

In summary, we can not operate without faith, no matter what our world view. And since we are designed for love we gravitate to that which meet's that need best (at the moment) based on our limited perspective. Faith is not only necessary because of our limits it is necessary in that it is tied to our very sense and need for value/love. Because of these two factors faith is not just unavoidable, it is contagious.

For a further discussion on being finite click here.

For a further discussion on being designed for love click here for several related articles.

Do our deeds matter?

If God's love for us is not based on what we do, do our good deeds matter?

Absolutely! 

Doing things to honor God and love others has real value/importance/significance. 

To live in such as way as to honor God and display his infinite worth in our day to day affairs is a vital means by which others can see something of the love of God and our love for him and thereby be drawn to him. This also has immense value to God since he seeks to spread his glory throughout the earth.

To treat others with value/love is also of tremendous importance. It brings true value directly to them (whereas the above is more indirect) and can be a means by which we point them directly to God as the source of life, love and all things instead of just indirectly. It can be key to someone seeing something about God in and through our actions thereby also being drawn to faith in him. Loving others as he loves us is not only a way we directly bless others but a primary way in which we honor God.

So living for God in general pleases God and seeking to honor him by directly helping others, also pleases him by blessing others.

In these two ways, loving God and neighbor, we are acting as we were designed to; loving others out of our love for God.  

So there is no doubt as to whether what we do or don't do matters. It matters greatly. We are God's appointed means to "put him on display" and to love others so they might come to know him and experience him in all his glory for their greatest joy.

It matters to us as well since we are designed to operate in this way and how we experience the maximum of who God created us to be - which in turn brings us greatest joy as well as great reward.

But are our actions, good deeds, obedience etc the means by which we gain/earn God's love and acceptance? 

And are we to seek and find our sense of value, acceptance and purpose by bringing value (doing good deeds) to others. This is often were much confusion lies and a distinction must be made. 

There is no doubt we can be valuable to others and also no doubt we will derive a sense of our own value in helping others. The question however becomes whether this is the basis or grounds for our true acceptance and value. 

To say it another way, do we act to gain acceptance and approval from God and others or because we already have it? If we already have it we will give or bring value to others. Loving others - treated them as valuable, significant etc - is the fruit of our being loved by God. And when others benefit we can legitimately rejoice in being the means of showing them God's love. But to garner acceptance and praise of others is not to be the reason we act. We are designed to act out of fullness and not in an attempt to obtain acceptance from others by or through our actions i.e. out of emptiness.

This is easy to say but not always easy to identify since the true motive of our hearts is not always obvious to us. Our hearts after are desperately wicked. Who can know it. 

So what exactly is the basis of God's acceptance of us and from where do we acquire our true sense of significance, meaning and value?

In truth, there is *nothing we can do to earn or gain God's acceptance. The ultimate grounds by which we are accepted and loved by God has to come not by our efforts but that of someone else. It is in and by God's approval of his Son i.e. his Son's faithfulness in honoring God and loving his neighbor to the point of losing his own life. This is because we can not and do not honor God or love our neighbor well enough for our efforts to ever cause God to love and accept us.

God's absolute love and acceptance of us requires our 100% (perfect) faithfulness. Faithfulness we never do (or can do). Anything less is inadequate, unacceptable and insufficient because God is the 100% cause of life, love and all things (all that we have and are). Because these are true he rightfully deserves and should receive our 100% commitment, faithfulness, honor and love.

Since we never are 100% faithful (and can be without his Spirit/love moving us to faithfulness) this had to be done for us if we were ever to be accepted by God. It had to be done perfectly because God is perfect and is rightly due perfect and absolute faithfulness. Only the eternal Son of God could do this and did do this, for us. If there was to ever be any hope of God restoring us to himself, this had to be done because we could not do it ourselves. We simply are too distrusting and too unfaithful i.e. we are not 100% faithful. If he hadn't done this for us we'd be without hope. Because it's 100% obtained for us by Christ we have absolute 100% hope. 

To do things in order to be accepted and loved by God or others will never cause God to love and accept us or give us what we need and were designed to experience i.e. 100% acceptance and love by God. 

To say it simply we don't act to gain value but to give it because we already have it, in Christ. And in so doing we in fact bring real value to others.

We treat others with value because God is 100% worthy of our faithful pursuit and so are others he's created.

God certainly loves and approves our doing things for his honor and glory; when we demonstrate our love for him by loving our neighbor as ourselves. It's just not the basis by which he accepts and receives us.

Pleasing God is not performing for God to gain his acceptance, it is operating by faith to spread his glory.

_________________________________________________________________

*The issue in question is a legal one i.e. justification, not the very practical day to day one of pleasing God. Faithfulness definitely pleases God, it simply doesn't justify us and make us right with God or causes him to accept us.

We do things to bring him glory, not to earn or cause him to accept us.