The love of god
There is a man I would see frequently who stood near a busy street holding a colorful “Jesus Loves You!” sign. Whenever I drove past by him, I couldn't help but smile and honk in agreement. But, if I’m being honest, I rarely took time to reflect on the truth of the words written on his sign.
You see, driving quickly passed the “Jesus Loves You” sign feels like a really good analogy for how many of us zoom past this profound truth of God’s love in our daily lives, whether we mean to or not.
In preparing for this week’s newsletter, I was surprised of how little of my life has been spent reflecting on the love of God. There is nothing more powerful than God’s love. In fact, I fall short in trying to capture God’s love in words. If you’ve ever tried to verbalize God’s love, you may have experienced the same feeling. It’s not that we don’t know God’s love, it’s that words tend to fall woefully short when trying to explain the depth of love that God has for each and every one of us. Perhaps the reason we find it so difficult to communicate God's love solely through our words and talk, is because we were meant and called to love in deed and truth!
“Little children, let’s us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18
As we wrestle with what it means for God to love us, our hearts reflect Paul’s in Ephesians 3:17:
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge— that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Love is a core attribute of who God is. How we begin interpreting God’s love for us is deeply impacted by the way we experienced love in our homes while growing up. Some of us came from loving homes and some us came from homes often riddled with brokenness and pain of varying degrees.
It is profound that God chooses to relate to his people as “Father”; redeeming the figure in the family that has the most potential for pain and destruction. As important as our earthly fathers’ love is, it is only a shadow of God’s love for us. God’s unconditional love is perfect, holy, steadfast, enduring, strengthening, and protective. It transforms the way we receive love, which then impacts how we love and interact with others.
The only way to have a richer understanding of God’s sacrificial love for us is by looking to what Christ did on the cross for our sins and accepting the gift of salvation that He purchased for us with His blood. When we acknowledge the darkness of our sin, we have a better picture of all we have been saved from and the depths of love Christ has for us.
“By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16).
At the cross, we see God’s heart for us on full display. Jesus models for us what it looked like to live out 1 John 3:18 by not just verbalizing His love for us but also displaying it in action and in truth at Calvary. Here we have a picture of God’s perfect justice and perfect love. It is important to understand that God will never compromise truth in the name of love. Believing this, we misunderstand the reality that God is fully Truth, fully Just, and fully Love.
As I reflect on God’s love, I’m reminded of a story one of my Bible professors shared. The university invited a staunch atheist whom we will refer to as Bob, to debate his beliefs with that of the Christian faith. During his stay, some theology professors, a pastor, and “Bob” went to dinner. During dinner, all of the Christian theologians went to bat discussing with Bob the theological arguments for the Christian faith. Bob seemed unamused and unconvinced. Bob had shared with them the pain of having a father who lived a life inconsistent to the faith he proclaimed. While theology is crucial, at this time, Bob needed to first understand an important truth. He needed to know God’s unique heart for him. Perceiving this, the pastor decided to began to share about God’s love for Bob. The pastor apologized on behalf of Bob’s father, who had caused a lot of hurt and pain. Immediately, Bob was moved greatly and broke down in tears. Bob needed to hear someone confess that what he experienced was wrong in God’s eyes. At that moment, Bob did not need to hear one more argument but instead he needed to feel the love of God. Bob needed to know that God grieved with him regarding the injustice and inconsistent message he received from his father.
God’s love isn’t intimidated by high-level scholarly questions, or the most tragic circumstances this world has to offer.
No other religion in the world testifies that their God, in perfect love, died for their sins with the purpose of redeeming man and the image of God in man.
God knows us - He knows we are made from dust. He knows the family we were born into; the complicated realities we wrestle with in our day-to-day lives. He knows our hearts' natural inclination towards sin. And He knows the power that lies in His love - the love that heals, strengthens, and transforms us more and more into the image of God.
God’s love has the power to melt the hardest of hearts. It says in Proverbs 21:1, “The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will.”
The Great News is this: Compelled with deep love and compassion, Jesus moved towards us while we were still enemies to Him.
God’s love and compassion towards us, compels us to move towards others to display this same sacrificial love so that they might know the most glorious truth of all - God’s heart to be in a loving relationship with us.
Here are a few questions to ponder before God today:
How do you feel as you ponder God’s love for you? Does it make you feel worthy? Unworthy? Ashamed? Apathetic? Calloused to the reality of His love?
When was the last time you felt God say, “I love you?” Perhaps you felt His through another person, a circumstance you saw God’s heart for you displayed, or through His Word. How did it make you feel?
What are some practical ways you can live in light of being loved by the Maker of the Universe?
While the ultimate example of God’s love is what Jesus did for us at the cross, we believe God delights in showing love towards us in our day-to-day. We encourage you to ask God to show His love for you uniquely. We know God delights and joyfully answers these prayers.