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| God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 1Jn 4:9 |
I once heard an elderly retired pastor say to me with tears in his eyes, "The most important theological statement in the New Testament is 'God is love.' It's simple, powerful, and says everything. I don't know why we feel the need to complicate things and have all these arguments and debates in the church. Just love."
Clearly, his words have stuck with me. He told me that at a Marriage Encounter retreat at the Sisters of St. Joseph's Convent in Tipton, Indiana as we were loading up our vehicles to go home. I don't remember his name. His face I can't recall. I can't remember if there's anything else we ever talked about, but those words have always remained in my consciousness.
It's true, the church has the propensity to tear itself apart with our efforts to strain gnats and miss that we are swallowing a camels. (See Matthew 23:24) In other words while we are focused on social issues like prayer in school, homosexuality, abortion, stem cells, etc, we are ignoring the great commandment to make disciples. While we are diverted to many worthwhile causes, we commit the great sin of omission, neglecting to love others as fully as God has loved us by giving up His Son for us.
I don't want to spend a lot of time focusing on what the church is doing wrong. There are plenty other people who are spinning that yarn. Instead I want to turn my thoughts to God, who is the very definition of love. For as we discipline our minds and hearts to continually praise God and glory in Him, His love pours into us and transforms us. With God's love at work in us who seek the Lord, we find ourselves less concerned with the worries of the world and the latest issues or causes thrown us before us. We know love and we know that love reigns. Love never fails. Love is eternal. (1st Corinthians 13:8a)
One might say that I am sticking my head in the sand or that I'm too other-worldly to be of an earthly good. On the contrary, the discipline of seeking the Lord's face and being filled with His love is exactly how Jesus changed the world and is changing the world and will ultimately save the world. We must act on social ills. We must speak out for the disadvantaged. We must speak against oppression and evil. Those acts of justice must come from love or they accomplish nothing in terms of establishing God's reign.
Paul wrote to the church in Rome:
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)
I've spoken in a previous blog about Jesus inhabiting our lives through the Holy Spirit. Here it is again. God's love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. So how does one receive the Holy Spirit?
If you read the preceding verses to Romans 5:5 you will see a progression. First, God has justified us before Him through faith in Jesus Christ. If we accept the gospel that God loves us and sent His son to die for us as an atoning sacrifice, then we are made right in God's eyes. (See 1st John 4:10) Forgiveness begins to make a difference as our estranged relationship with God is healed. Second, through our healed or reconciled relationship with God through faith in Christ, we have access to grace. What is grace?
I come from a tradition that has very powerful ideas about grace. According to the founder of the Methodist tradition, John Wesley, grace is the work of the Holy Spirit restoring us to the image of God in which we were created. Another way to look at grace is to understand it as God's love in action making us more and more like Jesus.
The goal of the Christian disciple is to become like Christ. The word Christian may be defined as "Little Christ." The One we worship and serve is the One we are becoming. Unity with Christ is the goal. Becoming intimately united with Jesus in heart, mind, soul, and body, is the promise of perfection. In fact, it is our destiny.
For those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son... (Romans 8:29)
When I consider the goal of my life, I hope, like my elderly retired pastor friend, I might be forgotten and only remembered as someone who loved Jesus and shared His love and the knowledge of Him with everyone I could. On my tombstone etch the words, "He loved Jesus."
The love of Jesus compels the disciple to persevere in this love, this grace. Becoming like Jesus is to pursue perfection. It will be a life long journey. It will take discipline, but remember you have access to amazing grace that is at work in you. Therefore Paul confesses the experience of the Christian as one of suffering, perseverance, and hope.
we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit... (Romans 5:3-5)
How do we receive love from God, such that divine love abides in us? Persevere, with the strength of faith and the grace in which you stand. Through all of life's ups and downs, trust that God is good all the time, and that His love is making new the world and you.
The social ills of this world will change for the better as every heart pursues the love of God in Jesus Christ. There is no other mediator between God and humanity, than Jesus. There is no other savior. There is no other God. Jesus is God. God is love. Jesus is love incarnate in you.
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