To get past the greatest stumbling block of our Lord's decree to, "Deny self and imitate His example of obedience", we must understand the correlation between LOVE and FAITH... and why the Fish??
Intellectually we know that the SOURCE of all Love is GOD.
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God." - 1John 4:7
But what exactly is LOVE?
Our culture has coopted the term "love" and redefined it to mean anything from "loving Hawaii," to "loving grandma", from "loving a movie," to "loving a pet".
But, just as with any author, a word means EXACTLY (and only) what the AUTHOR intended it to mean.
Love is not an emotion or sentiment; it is a MOTIVATION actualized (made authentic) by an ACTION.
"Love without action, and action without love, is worthless." - 1John 3:8, 1Corinthians 13:1
Pure love is sacrificial, and we can only love because God first loved us.
Meaning, everything we have and everything that we are, is FROM God and FOR us.
This is God sacrificially loving (from His power and authority) every human being that has ever existed.
"For, in Him we live and move and have our being..." - Acts 17:28
"What do you have that you did not receive?" - 1 Corinthians 4:7
But God doesn't just meet our needs, He loves us with an ABUNDANCE which enables us to make one of two choices... Imitate Christ and love as He loves (sacrificially), OR to love ourselves by hoarding His blessings well beyond our needs.
God's love for us gives a choice, because love without choice is not genuine.
God's desire for us is sanctification producing transformation into Christ's likeness.
God showers us with an abundance of love, and then calls us to, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Within this part of the Great Commandment, we are called to forsake loving yourself (deny self) and instead sacrificially love those in need (bear your cross).
"Love your neighbor instead of (as if) yourself."
For which you may ask, "Dwayne, what version of the Bible is that?"
My reply would be the JLV (Jesus Lived Version), because that is EXACTLY how Jesus lived out the Great Commandment.
You may then ask, "How can I survive without loving myself at all?"
"For we walk by faith, not by sight." - 2 Corinthians 5:7
"Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." - Matthew 6:33
Pursuing and then hoarding God's loving provision, such as building bigger bank accounts, is not a pursuit in faith.
But what exactly is FAITH?
"Without faith it is impossible to please God." - Hebrews 11:6
"Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." - Mark 10:15
Does your child, or did you as a child, worry about meals, clothes, or lodging?
Parents PROVIDE all that a child needs from the parent's own resources, and the child lives day to day without concern for their sustenance.
God likewise promises to provide for our every need, and we are to be "good and faithful stewards with His resources."
We are to maintain, even improve, our ability to serve our Master, and faithfully utilize the rest.
Living for MYSELF, improving knowledge or skills primarily to increase my standard of living, does not Glorify God. Because it neither shows faith in His provision nor the radical "sacrificial love for others" that we're commanded to have. Onlookers will see wholesome hard work making for a nice life. Not the radically different, live for the needy, yet still has what he needs, God blessed way of living.
Faith is an obvious trust and reliance upon God's love for us.
Faith is tested with both little and with plenty (Philippians 4:12).
Faith is not worrying about self, and thus drives out fear.
Faith is simply knowing that God loves you, far greater than you will love your children.
Faith is believing that God will keep His promises to us, which we learn by reading and hearing Scripture (Romans 10:17).
"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; not about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? And why worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil or spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What are we to eat?' or ' What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Gather knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:25-34
What about the FISH?
Read the passage in Matthew 17, verses 24-27.
The method by which Jesus has Peter attain a coin to pay their taxes seems very bizarre, even by miracle standards. Why was this situation handled in such a manner?
The answer is so that we have no doubt about FAITH and LOVE...
(Golf humor)
Three golfers come to a short par which has a pond.
Moses goes first, and his ball lands in the water. But when Moses approached the pond, the waters divide which allows him to walk down and hit his ball up onto the green.
The second golfer is Jesus, and his first hit also lands into the water. But Jesus merely walks on the water to his ball, then hits it up onto the green.
The third golfer also hits his first shot into the water, but a big mouth bass quickly swallows it, and just then an eagle swoops down and grasps the fish, but as the eagle flew over the green with its meal, the fish drops the ball which rolls right into the hole!
Jesus then turns to the third golfer and says, "nice shot dad."
Why is it so easy to understand this punchline... Who else could do it like that?
Why did Jesus instruct Peter to go fishing, take the first catch, open its mouth and retrieve enough tax money to pay both their taxes??
If Jesus had turned a smooth stone into a coin, as He did water into wine for the wedding feast, then Peter would have seen Jesus meeting His own needs... But instead, Peter had no doubt that God faithfully provided for them, just as God PROMISED.
Jesus instructed, Peter obeyed, God provided.
A follower of Jesus is to "Seek first His kingdom, and His righteousness", and by faith rely on God to be faithful in meeting his/her needs (as promised).
Jesus was righteous in all that He did; denied loving self, relied on receiving God's love, and obediently reflected God's love back to Him by loving his neighbor as Himself.
A radically different lifestyle than what this world promotes.
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." - Romans 12:2
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