“Therefore love peace and truth.” Zechariah 8:19b
We love our family, we love our pets, we love our friends. We can even love our jobs, our money, and our stuff. In all honesty, I’ve even admitted to loving a few of my fancy shiny cars. And after almost 28 years of marriage, I can truly attest to what it means to truly love another human through sickness, health, much, little, highs, and lows. But as we ponder what it truly means to love, have you noticed we most often associate the word and act with the physical. That somehow the items needs to be touched to be truly loved? That only the physical can somehow love us back and therefore complete the cycle of love? But what if you were to love the untouchable? Can you really love something that is intangible? Can you realistically love an ideal? Well my friends, we come across a verse this morning that gives us an image of just how we should be loving the ideals of Almighty God. And that is to love as Jesus does. And when we love as Jesus loves, we will love what He loves.
At His core, God is the Creator. Yes of course He loves all His creatures, but He had to create them before He could love them. And He created every single one of His creatures with a very specific purpose in mind. And when it came to the first man he breathed into existence from the dust and the first woman that he created from the man’s side, He had a very specific purpose for each of them. And just what is that purpose? Well, to fulfill His purpose. And just what is that purpose? To follow His commandments, laws, and ways of life so that we can find the joyful, peaceful, and purpose-filled life that He designed for us to enjoy. And in doing that, we should emulate the example He has given us. We should do as He would do, treat others as He would treat others, and yes, love just as He loves.
If you have called upon Jesus Christ as your Savior in faith, then your life goal today should be just this. To abide in Jesus daily and see that you walk as He walked, speak as He spoke, treat others as He treated others, and love as deeply as He loved. And in Zechariah chapter 8 we find a beautiful, stoic, and simple commandment that God clearly and succinctly delivers for His children to follow. And it is rather an odd one. You won’t see it listed as one of the ten commandments. You won’t see it come from the mouth of Jesus worded just as it is here. And even though each of the ideals of love and peace are mentioned around 250 times each in His Word, it’s tough to find them delivered in this specific way. And the way they are delivered from the Lord here is simple as pie.
“Therefore, love truth and peace.” Zechariah 8:19b
I think if we’re all honest today we greatly value truth and peace. We hold both of them in very high regard, seeing great value in them both. I also think the world sees them as honorable, valorous, and worthy. But would you say that the world loves truth and peace? I think that’s a hearty no. But the world is rather an easy scapegoat to drop the blame on, so let’s look at the lowest common denominator that assembles the world, the individual. Yep, that’s you and me. For you see, the world is merely a collection of 8 billion individuals. And that teaming mass makes up its mind one mind at a time. So as one of the individuals that makes up this world, do you really and truly love truth and peace?
My favorite definition of truth is ‘the absence of untruth.’ You see, truth is just that, the perfect absence of anything that is not the truth. Our world has a tremendously hard time with the truth today. We see the truth as flexible and personal, a kind of custom-tailored suit if you will. We want the truth to serve us instead of us serving the truth. So before you can truly profess to love the truth, you will need to locate, fully acknowledge, and submit to the truth. And folks, here this carefully, if the truth is purely and simply the truth, there can be only one. For me this venture to find the one and only truth culminated in 1994 as I asked Jesus to save me from the sinful life I was trapped in. And as I was anointed with His Holy Spirit, the way was clearly pointed to the one and only truth…the Holy Word of God. And for the last 5 years I have dedicated my life to the study, application, and giving out of God’s truth through His Word. A truth that I truly do love deeply.
And what about peace, do you really love peace or is it something that you ideally hope will somehow just happen? We live in a world today that hopes for peace yet is so ready to move its feet in the opposite direction of it. I hear stories and see videos daily of people in this world that are like powder kegs with crazily short fuses. They are so ready to explode, doing just the opposite of peace in trying to locate and secure their own justice. Peace can be defined as the absence of evil. It is a direct by-product of the truth, hence God pre-packaging it together with truth in this verse. As God created truth, His perfect peace came as a result. The peace of God to me is a gentle, slow-moving river that carries me along as I commit to love the truth of God. And folks, if you’ve never experienced the peace of God in your life, well, then you’ve never lived life the way your Creator intended you to.
God desires for each of us to know Him personally through His Son Jesus Christ. To know His ways for our lives through the power of His Words to us, and then to live in those ways. And as you complete that Holy journey, God will make the ways of His truth and peace known to you. And as you live and revel in them, you will learn to love them just as God does. And as you do, you will discover an abundant goodness in this world. God will show you the way to live a gloriously free and purpose-filled life. Today, love the truth and peace of God enough that you’re willing to not only love them, but tell others of them. Today, go and tell others of the treasure that you’ve found and see that others too can learn to love truth and peace.
Blessings for a heart that loves the way the Lord loves ~ Dan
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32
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