Between the Two Ponds
One passage. One idea. A few quiet minutes. Short devotional readings for people being formed by grace, written from a small chair beside still water in Falcon, Colorado.
Pull one up. Read slowly. There is no hurry here.
There Is Nothing Left to Negotiate
Freely means without cost or payment. It means given as a gift. When Jesus sends the disciples out and tells them to heal the sick and cleanse the lepers, he tells them they received freely, so give freely, and he means do not put a price on it.
"I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them." (Hosea 14:4)
I will love them freely. The word carries two meanings at once, and both of them undo us. Freely means without cost or payment, given as a gift, no invoice attached. When Jesus sends his disciples out he tells them, freely you received, so freely give, and he means put no price on it. And freely also means willingly, uncompelled. No one stood over God and made him love. There is no obligation in the room. Here is the hinge of it: to love freely, there has to be freedom. Love that is owed is not love.
Which is why one common motto has to be buried, and buried in the church first. You scratch my back and I will scratch yours. It sounds like unity. It is faithlessness with good manners, because it turns a relationship into a transaction, and a transaction always has terms, and terms can always be breached, and the moment they are, either side is free to withhold or to leave. That is not love. That is bondage with a friendly face.
Most of us are running exactly that arrangement with God without knowing it. I came to church, I gave, I served, I did my part, and I am not being blessed, so you are not doing yours. Hear this plainly. The transaction already happened. It happened between the Son and the Father, the debt was paid in full, and you were never a party to the agreement. There is nothing left for you to negotiate.
He will not love you more when you produce, and he will not love you less when you fail. He said he would love you freely. The only thing left for you to do is to stop bargaining, and let him.