The house that love built

Many people dream of designing their own house. They will spend time appointing the right architect and builder and making sure that the interior is just right. Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, had a grand design in his head and he set about making his dream become reality. The prophet Jeremiah shared some of the Lord’s observations about Jehoiakim’s building project. “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice. He uses his neighbour’s service and gives him nothing for his work. He says, ‘I will build a magnificent palace with huge rooms and many windows. I will panel it throughout with fragrant cedar and paint it a lovely red.’ But a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king,” (Jeremiah 22: 13-15). God was not taking issue with the fact that Jehoiakim had a lovely palace, but rather about the manner in which it was built. Jehoiakim was guilty of exploiting his workers and planning to live a life of luxury, when many of the people of Judah were living in the ruins of Jerusalem because of the destruction caused by the Babylonians. You may not be planning to expand your physical home, but every kingdom citizen should be planning to build a spiritual house. How we live with and treat our brothers and sisters is a measure of our spiritual growth and development. Here are some points of reflection for aspiring builders. Do you pay people a fair price for the work they do for you? More significantly, do you pay them at all? Do you love things and use people, instead of loving people and using things? Do you think that having nice things defines who you are? John, the beloved apostle, shares these insights. “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does the will of God will live forever,” (1 John 2: 15-17). Kingdom citizens should ask themselves some serious questions about the foundations of the spiritual house they are building.