God's Most Hated Four-Letter Word

 September 27, 2024

Friday

If we hear that someone used four-letter words, we generally think the person used bad words. That isn't always the case. God uses four-letter words, too.

The first four-letter word that I think of God using is love. The scripture tells us that God is love. It tells us of His love for us. The greatest commandments have us loving God and others. The Apostle Paul tells us that nothing can separate us from God's love. Jesus said that we would obey His commandments if we loved Him. This one four-letter word binds all of our understanding of God together.

John 3:16 (ESV) ¹⁶  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 4:16 (ESV) ¹⁶  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 

Romans 8:38-39 (ESV) ³⁸  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The next four-letter word I think of is obey. Obedience seems to be a burden to some. That may be why they are so reluctant. It means that they must deny self to do what God has commanded. However, love makes no sense without obey. It is not love that allows a child to grow up with no parameters. It is not love that allows a child to do whatever he or she wants. Obey is a word that helps us understand love.

Exodus 20:6 (GW) ⁶  But I show mercy to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my commandments.

 John 14:15 (GW) ¹⁵  “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.

John 15:10 (GW) ¹⁰  If you obey my commandments, you will live in my love. I have obeyed my Father's commandments, and in that way I live in his love. 

Some of God's four-letter words are misunderstood. The one that I think is disliked on the outside but loved on the inside is the word work. Work sounds so bad before you engage in it. It is fulfilling when it is done. It is work that completes the word obey. Work proves our faith. It doesn't accomplish our salvation but it proves that we have the faith of salvation. Thus, without work, we are lost. Work should be embraced. It reveals who we belong to.

James 2:17 (ESV) ¹⁷  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Each of these words can be easily understood. As we mature, each of them will be embraced and relied upon. There is one word that maybe our most hated four-letter word that God uses. He uses it often. He uses it in love. However, only the truly mature understand why He uses it. What is that word? It is the word wait.

God has a time for everything. He sends His creation out for His glory. It will return in His timing to Him. He has made it infinitely grander than the making of a precision clock that must have each part move in its precise time. He has placed each of us with His time in mind. Yet, we often don't like it. It is what is best. It is best because God says it is so.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (ESV) ¹  For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: ²  a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; ³  a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; ⁴  a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ⁵  a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ⁶  a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; ⁷  a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸  a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.