"Love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love."
God is love. This truth has been quoted many times in numerous contexts-- often as a rationale for religious tolerance, acceptance, and human virtue. The idea is that every act, every feeling, every demonstration of love is God. Selfless sacrifice, passionate love, undivided devotion--in any context and in every manner is love. Whether it's Jesus sacrificing himself out of love for humanity, or a suicide bomber sacrificing his life for love of a reward; passionate love between a husband and a wife or a husband and another man's wife. But we see that in different contexts love takes on very different forms. Is God just as much embodied in Jesus' body on the cross as He is in radical acts of terrorism or violence? Or is God just as present in a committed and faithful marriage as he is in the passionate affair of two adulterers? Our understanding of this truth has caused us to paint a contradictory and inconsistent picture of God. We may preach "God is love" but what we're really saying is "love is God."
Essentially, what we feel and what we can perceive and understand of our emotions determines who and what God is. Therefore, it is no wonder that peoples view of God is as varied and confused as their emotions. God does not change, but our emotions do. God does not lie, cheat, steal or fail but in the name of love people have done all these things. love is not God.
In fact, we can only love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). True love can only be borne in us and initiated by God's love for us. Our primary endeavor then should not be to love like God but to be loved by God. It's a funny thing that when we try to love like God we will only realize how much we are not like God and we will fail. But when we surrender ourselves and acknowledge that love has to be initiated, planted, perfected in us we begin to love like God naturally.
"this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" In this we find what we have always been looking for. Everyone knows that they need love. but what that looks like, and where to find it is a mystery. The love we are looking for, the love we need, and the only love that can set us free is found in a most unlikely place.
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
God is love. God authors and perfects love in us. apart from God we cannot love as we were made to. Our love has a million strings attached and is motivated by countless ulterior motives. We love those who love us. We love to feel affirmed in our worth and our identity. We love to cover up our insecurities and fill a need within ourselves. We love when recriprocation is expected. Truthfully examine yourself and you may find that selfishness is at the root of even your most loving actions. How will we be perceived? How will we be affirmed? How will it make us feel? and What will we gain? God does not love in such a way. Jesus did nothing out of selfish ambition (philippians 2:3) and gave everything expecting to be persecuted and reviled in response.
This is the standard of love that Jesus laid down His life for. This is the love that He called us to through the great commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself". and this is the love that He wants to put in us. The cross was a declaration of love, but it was also an invitation. At calvary, Jesus bid us "Come Look at Love!" but in the resurrection Jesus empowers us to become love.
The Christian faith is not as shallow as God asking His people to try with all their might to love others as we think He would. And then hope that through our efforts we will become more loving people. We will never see true transformation as long as love is our God. And the lost will never desire what is in us if it is the same as what is in them. The integrity of the gospel goes much much deeper than morality and kindness. The gospel is about freedom from ourselves (from pride, from selfishness, from vanity, and insecurity)-- so that when God puts His love in us, we dont get in the way. We must die to ourselves--our pride, our self sufficiency-- to accept the love of God. and we must die to ourselves--our selfishness, our insecurities--to allow the love we've received to flow through us.Freely we receive and freely we give (Matthew 10:8).
God is love. This truth has been quoted many times in numerous contexts-- often as a rationale for religious tolerance, acceptance, and human virtue. The idea is that every act, every feeling, every demonstration of love is God. Selfless sacrifice, passionate love, undivided devotion--in any context and in every manner is love. Whether it's Jesus sacrificing himself out of love for humanity, or a suicide bomber sacrificing his life for love of a reward; passionate love between a husband and a wife or a husband and another man's wife. But we see that in different contexts love takes on very different forms. Is God just as much embodied in Jesus' body on the cross as He is in radical acts of terrorism or violence? Or is God just as present in a committed and faithful marriage as he is in the passionate affair of two adulterers? Our understanding of this truth has caused us to paint a contradictory and inconsistent picture of God. We may preach "God is love" but what we're really saying is "love is God."
Essentially, what we feel and what we can perceive and understand of our emotions determines who and what God is. Therefore, it is no wonder that peoples view of God is as varied and confused as their emotions. God does not change, but our emotions do. God does not lie, cheat, steal or fail but in the name of love people have done all these things. love is not God.
In fact, we can only love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). True love can only be borne in us and initiated by God's love for us. Our primary endeavor then should not be to love like God but to be loved by God. It's a funny thing that when we try to love like God we will only realize how much we are not like God and we will fail. But when we surrender ourselves and acknowledge that love has to be initiated, planted, perfected in us we begin to love like God naturally.
"this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" In this we find what we have always been looking for. Everyone knows that they need love. but what that looks like, and where to find it is a mystery. The love we are looking for, the love we need, and the only love that can set us free is found in a most unlikely place.
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
God is love. God authors and perfects love in us. apart from God we cannot love as we were made to. Our love has a million strings attached and is motivated by countless ulterior motives. We love those who love us. We love to feel affirmed in our worth and our identity. We love to cover up our insecurities and fill a need within ourselves. We love when recriprocation is expected. Truthfully examine yourself and you may find that selfishness is at the root of even your most loving actions. How will we be perceived? How will we be affirmed? How will it make us feel? and What will we gain? God does not love in such a way. Jesus did nothing out of selfish ambition (philippians 2:3) and gave everything expecting to be persecuted and reviled in response.
This is the standard of love that Jesus laid down His life for. This is the love that He called us to through the great commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself". and this is the love that He wants to put in us. The cross was a declaration of love, but it was also an invitation. At calvary, Jesus bid us "Come Look at Love!" but in the resurrection Jesus empowers us to become love.
The Christian faith is not as shallow as God asking His people to try with all their might to love others as we think He would. And then hope that through our efforts we will become more loving people. We will never see true transformation as long as love is our God. And the lost will never desire what is in us if it is the same as what is in them. The integrity of the gospel goes much much deeper than morality and kindness. The gospel is about freedom from ourselves (from pride, from selfishness, from vanity, and insecurity)-- so that when God puts His love in us, we dont get in the way. We must die to ourselves--our pride, our self sufficiency-- to accept the love of God. and we must die to ourselves--our selfishness, our insecurities--to allow the love we've received to flow through us.Freely we receive and freely we give (Matthew 10:8).
