Monday 8 August 2016

God is Love

"love...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." (1 Cor 13: 7-8)

The love passage of 1 Corinthians is very challenging in that it clearly can show the motive of our hearts.  Love is the universal language because God is love (1 Jn 4:8) and He is the Creator of all things, which have been created by and through His love.  Love is the essence of God and all things created, especially mankind made in His image show His loving thoughts and touch.  But we have, because of sin and self, a love deficit in areas of our hearts.  Experiences of rejection in life teach us to withdraw and build walls, which ultimately keep us from love and loving.  This passage clearly shows us what love is and the lack of it, or indeed its fullness, in our hearts and even in the world. We just need to look at all the crime in the world to see that people do not walk in love for others.

Anything that we do, even if it is good, that is done without love being the motive, profits nothing. Everything God does is motivated by His love for us and we are to be imitators of Him.  Ultimately it is the experience of God's perfect love that will cast out fear (1 Jn 4:18) and open our hearts more to Him and others.

There is a vulnerability in love.  Jesus loved all and kept His heart open, even to those who rejected Him and sought His death.  This is why He could pray, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing", (Luke 23:34) even as He watched them divide and gamble for His clothes at the foot of the cross.  Love bears no grudge but is full in its forgiveness, which is why the act of forgiveness, even in extreme hurt, is so powerful and releasing. That is why movies such as "The Railway Man" touch us to the core of our being, when we see the act of forgiveness so powerfully portrayed as a Japanese POW meets and forgives his torturer.

Love pulls at the strings of our heart.  There is a deep desire in us to experience true love (not just romantic love) but to be deeply and unconditionally loved and appreciated by family and friends.  Even the heart withdrawn, at its core, desires this love as much as it fears it.  A preacher known as "The Ambassador of Love" once said we need to ask God to heal and fill those areas in us that are uncomfortable with love.  Only God can heal these areas in our hearts and so fill them with His love and light that they can become vulnerable and fully open before Him, healed and overflowing towards others.  His love is safe and a refuge for the weary and love-starved heart.

Jesus fully knew the love of  His Father and the total acceptance of His God and Father even before He began His ministry and He powerfully walked in the same love for humankind.  We too can know the Father's love for us through Jesus Christ.  We just need to mediate on the cross to know how much He loved us with a perfect, sacrificial love.

One of Apostle Paul's prayers for the church was, "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know Christ's love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph 3:17-18)

God is Love

"love...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." (1 Cor 13: 7-8)

The love passage of 1 Corinthians is very challenging in that it clearly can show the motive of our hearts.  Love is the universal language because God is love (1 Jn 4:8) and He is the Creator of all things, which have been created by and through His love.  Love is the essence of God and all things created, especially mankind made in His image show His loving thoughts and touch.  But we have, because of sin and self, a love deficit in areas of our hearts.  Experiences of rejection in life teach us to withdraw and build walls, which ultimately keep us from love and loving.  This passage clearly shows us what love is and the lack of it, or indeed its fullness, in our hearts and even in the world. We just need to look at all the crime in the world to see that people do not walk in love for others.

Anything that we do, even if it is good, that is done without love being the motive, profits nothing. Everything God does is motivated by His love for us and we are to be imitators of Him.  Ultimately it is the experience of God's perfect love that will cast out fear (1 Jn 4:18) and open our hearts more to Him and others.

There is a vulnerability in love.  Jesus loved all and kept His heart open, even to those who rejected Him and sought His death.  This is why He could pray, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing", (Luke 23:34) even as He watched them divide and gamble for His clothes at the foot of the cross.  Love bears no grudge but is full in its forgiveness, which is why the act of forgiveness, even in extreme hurt, is so powerful and releasing. That is why movies such as "The Railway Man" touch us to the core of our being, when we see the act of forgiveness so powerfully portrayed as a Japanese POW meets and forgives his torturer.

Love pulls at the strings of our heart.  There is a deep desire in us to experience true love (not just romantic love) but to be deeply and unconditionally loved and appreciated by family and friends.  Even the heart withdrawn, at its core, desires this love as much as it fears it.  A preacher known as "The Ambassador of Love" once said we need to ask God to heal and fill those areas in us that are uncomfortable with love.  Only God can heal these areas in our hearts and so fill them with His love and light that they can become vulnerable and fully open before Him, healed and overflowing towards others.  His love is safe and a refuge for the weary and love-starved heart.

Jesus fully knew the love of  His Father and the total acceptance of His God and Father even before He began His ministry and He powerfully walked in the same love for humankind.  We too can know the Father's love for us through Jesus Christ.  We just need to mediate on the cross to know how much He loved us with a perfect, sacrificial love.

One of Apostle Paul's prayers for the church was, "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know Christ's love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph 3:17-18)