-No love, no God. And the converse is also true - no God, no love. Because God is love. Yes, let’s say it again - God is love. God. Is. Love. This famous phrase appears only twice in all of Scripture, for the first time right here, and then in the very next paragraph. It is one of the most profound yet simple statements in all of literature. Yes, God is love. He is the most loving Being in the universe, to the n-th degree and beyond. Always and forever, love. From everlasting to everlasting, love. You can’t even wrap your mind around it, it is so immense, so wide and long and high and deep as to be incomprehensible. Altho we can - and by all means (including prayer) certainly should endeavor to do so (as in Paul - Ephesians 3.17-19). But right now, right here, God is love, and God so loves. Inexhaustible uncontainable immeasurable love, overflowing, overwhelming unconditional love, giving, sacrificing, pursuing-that-which-is-good-for-the-other love. It’s-not-about-me love. Others-first others-more-important love. This love is not about me, about how I feel. It’s not about my happiness as the be all and end all. This is love which finds its greatest satisfaction in giving itself away for the sake of another. This is God, and He IS love. Love incarnate. Love with skin on - and He so wants to so love others with His love THROUGH US. Love is not just what He is like, it is what He DOES. Because love is NOT a feeling - it is a verb. THE Verb. It acts, it gives, it flows out and touches, works for the good of the world and those around us.
-Everything about God is characterized by love. All love, all the time. And so we must ask, where is the love? What about the love? Particularly, God's love in me directed towards His children, my brother and sister in Christ? How am I doing at loving them? How are we doing at loving one another? Because our Daddy, this is what He is like. He is all about this. The consummate "Love Machine". And He has designed it such that love is the be-all end-all goal of following Christ - love for Him, and for others, especially for His people. And His children are to be little love machines running all over showing His love to peoples everywhere. So much so that the person who is not loving, who is not “doing” the love thing very likely “did not” (come to) know God (not yet at least). There is not a time in their life when they put their faith in His Son. As best we can tell, they are not “out of” God, He has not worked in them a rebirth of love. Now, it IS possible they may be having a bad day, or going through a rough season - it happens to everyone, right? But when you look at their life, and how they live over a period of time, if you do not see love, this giving sacrificing doing love which comes only from God, then it is safe to assume that this person has not yet come to know the God Who is love. And yes, unbelievers are certainly capable of rising to great acts of sacrifice and generosity - but we’re talking a consistent lifestyle of this selfless love, something which is quite impossible to sustain apart from a heavenly reboot and daily divine enabling. God help us indeed...
No comments:
Post a Comment