The day that Christ entered my life was sunny. I remember sitting on my front step soon after that encounter and marveling at the change in my understanding. Truly the sky seemed bluer and the flowers more brilliant, but what I noticed most was a new attitude toward people.
Prior to becoming a Christian, I knew that I should care
more about people, but I could not make that happen. I was more concerned about
me and that was that. But Jesus made a difference, and I immediately noticed
the change in my affections. Of course, that was a mere beginning. Love starts
as a trickle before it becomes a Niagara!
As I drop the idols that pull me away from God, the Lord reminds
me of what a friend once said, “When I love God, that does not mean that I hate
my wife.” I’m to love others, but with the right kind of love, God’s love.
The love of idolatry, if it can be called love, is
different from the love of God. Idolatry is all about what that idol (which can
be money, fame, even another person) can do for me. The love of God is about
what I can do for others. John describes it well, then adds this clarification
. . .
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love
God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother
whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we
have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:19–21)
Hating others makes loving God impossible. He says we demonstrate
our love for Him by obeying what He commands, and He commands us to love one
another. As a non-Christian, I knew the command but had no power to obey. I
probably didn’t really want to anyway, but Christ made the difference.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The
old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Christ is the answer to the love question. From Him comes
the love that God commands. His love is not like mine. He never places it in
the wrong god because He has no attraction to idols of any sort. When my attitude
toward money, fame, other people and any potential idol is the same as His
attitude, then idolatry is not a problem.
Furthermore, my love fades or gives up when the object of
it no longer does what I want, no longer feeds my ego, or fills my pocketbook,
or blesses me in some way. His love is not like that. It endures . . .
Give thanks to the Lord,
for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God
of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of
lords, for his steadfast love endures forever . . . (Psalm 136:1–3)
Loving others in the power of Christ usually involves some
sort of personal sacrifice, yet I still benefit for I am also receiving that
love that He asks me to pass on to others. In that, my love for Him increases.
The math might not work, but the love of God isn’t math. He keeps giving and
the more I give back, the more I receive.
The love of God means that I can love Him too. He saved me
and gives me eternal hope. I love Him for He is my strength (Psalm 18:1) and “I love the Lord,
because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.” (Psalm 116:1) But
most of all, I love Him because He first loved me.
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