The Delight of My Heart (Jeremiah 15:16)

“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.” (Jeremiah 15:16)

God’s Word is a joy to God’s people. The words of our God bring us delight and spiritual sustenance. They are sweeter than honey and more valuable than gold (Psa 19:10). This has been the experience of God’s people through the ages.

It was also the experience of the prophet Jeremiah. God called Jeremiah out as a prophet and gave him his word. Jeremiah consumed God’s Word, and it was his joy and the delight of his heart. He was happy to follow God’s ways and trust his truth.

Yet in context, Jeremiah’s words here are part of a lament. To be clear, he is not lamenting his experience of finding joy in God’s Word but how his own people treated him as a result. In finding joy in God’s Word, Jeremiah separated himself from the false, sinful joy of his compatriots (Jer 15:17). He felt just anger at their disregard for God and his truth. He felt isolated in the midst of a people in rebellion against God.

In other words, Jeremiah delighted in God’s Word, but this actually made his life harder. Joy in God’s Word will not bring us a carefree, easy life in this broken world. Sometimes, our joyful obedience to God’s Word will lead people to reject and ostracize us. We may feel alone at times when we choose delight in God’s Word over the sinful pleasures of the world.

But God promised Jeremiah: If you keep speaking what is precious (i.e., God’s Word), you will not be defeated, “for I am with you to save you” (Jer 15:19-21). The world may oppose God’s truth, but they will not have the final victory over God’s people who delight to obey and proclaim God’s Word.

Jeremiah had a difficult task of proclaiming a message that prophesied God’s coming judgment on a people who were following their stubborn hearts (Jer 16:12). We, however, have a better message that fulfills Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry! The true Prophet, Jesus, has come, and he suffered the reproach of his people. He took the judgment we deserve so that all who trust in him can have peace with God and everlasting life.

So, how much more should we delight to read God’s Word, study God’s Word, obey God’s Word, and proclaim God’s Word! God has set a feast before us in his Word. Will you dig in today and find joy? Will your weekly priorities reveal a joy in hearing, doing, and sharing God’s Word? To be sure, this will make your life harder at times. But the joy of knowing God through his Word is more than worth it.

Enjoying the Toil (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25)

“There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25)

This week, our church basement flooded after we received 6-7 inches of rain in the course of a couple hours. The creek behind the church rose into the parking lot, ran down our basement stairwell, and put the entire basement two inches under water.

As we toiled with buckets in hand, one of the guys asked me: “Isn’t this the time for you to share some deep spiritual wisdom?” My response: “Well, I just read some of Ecclesiastes this morning!”

In both Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 and 3:12-14, Solomon declares that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their food, drink, and, yes, even their toil. There is satisfaction to be found in enjoying a well-made meal, a tasty cup of coffee (something even Solomon never got to enjoy!), and doing hard work–whether that is your nine-to-five job, a labor-intensive hobby, or bailing water out of a basement.

And yet, Solomon has also just remarked that when he looked at his toil under the sun, he hated it (Eccl 2:18)! Why? Because whatever he gained from it, he would eventually have to leave to someone else. He found this absurd, vanity, meaningless. Why work hard when whatever you gain doesn’t last or will be passed on to a fool?

If you look to work to get you things you think will make you happy, you will always be let down in the end. You will come to hate your toil. But if you look for the simple satisfaction of hard work done well, you will find a much better way to live under the sun. It is not always fun. But it is a gift from God (Eccl 3:13).

Life under the sun (i.e., life in this present fallen world) often seems absurd and meaningless. You replace carpet one week and a couple weeks later the basement floods again. You wash dishes only to dirty them again. The work doesn’t stop and sometimes it seems like it is for nothing. But when we take stock of our brief lives here on earth and remember what really matters, we can find enjoyment from God even in the toil.

Solomon also goes on to add that “whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him,” (Eccl 3:14). Our work will fade. Our greatest accomplishments and richest achievements will pass from memory. But God’s works last forever so that we might come to know and worship him.

We can enjoy the satisfaction of hard work done well even though we know our work won’t last because we know, worship, trust, and love the God whose works last forever.

Bad Theology Suffocates Love (1 Timothy 1:3-5)

Last week, a minor league baseball team forfeited a game because several players on the team refused to wear rainbow, “Pride” affirming jerseys. Several major league players also received backlash for displaying Bible verses on their baseball caps during a game marketed as a “LGBTQ Pride Night.” It is all too common for these kinds of stands to be labeled “unloving” in our society. And LGBTQ issues are just one example of this. Today if you contradict anyone’s beliefs, you risk being labeled a hater.

But the apostle Paul offers a different diagnosis. He writes to Timothy:

“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Timothy 1:3-5)

According to Paul, Timothy risks undermining love in the church if he lets false teaching and sin continue unchecked. False doctrine suffocates love. But biblical doctrine revives love. Biblical doctrine leads us to the God who is Love and defines love and lavishes his love upon us in Jesus.

Paul wants Timothy to charge the church to teach only true, biblical doctrine for the sake of love. The goal (telos) of promoting good theology and confronting bad theology is love. To allow false doctrine to go unchecked in the church is profoundly unloving. It is unloving to let lies rage like wildfire among Christ’s people. It is unloving to ignore distortions of the gospel, distortions of God’s character, or distortions of God’s commands.

The standard of truth the church should promote is the “stewardship from God that is by faith.” This stewardship is the sound doctrine of Scripture that we receive by faith. Anything that rejects, denies, or distorts this stewardship will not end up on the path to love.

But when the church promotes biblical teaching, the church pursues love that has a solid foundation in purity of heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith (1 Tim 1:5). Good theology promotes the purity of our hearts. We find cleansing in Christ, and God creates a clean heart in us as we believe the gospel. Biblical teaching also properly aligns our inner compass of right and wrong based on God’s standards. And sound doctrine fans our faith into flame by showing us the wonder of who God is and what he has done.

In contrast, bad theology muddies our hearts. It leads us to believe lies about God, the world, and other people. False teaching misaligns our inner sense of right and wrong. It also corrupts our faith and makes it looks fake, because it is man-made and not based on God’s truth. False doctrine shipwrecks our faith and drowns our love (1 Tim 1:19-20).

Therefore, if love is our telos, we will confront false doctrine and proclaim biblical truth without apology. Love should be our aim. Love should also influence our manner of proclaiming the truth. We don’t want to be jerks. We want people to see the beauty of the gospel and the beauty of living God’s way.

The most loving way to live is not ignoring sin and bad theology. The most loving way to live is graciously pointing people to God’s truth in Scripture as we live it out ourselves. Lord, help us to pursue this kind of love in the church by pressing into the sound doctrine of your Word.