There is no human experience parallel for what God does. He makes impossible demands —then He gives what is needed to obey those demands. For this incredible grace, I often call myself God’s spoiled brat. Like a child too little for the task at hand, my heavenly Father enables me and I find myself doing what I thought was impossible — amazed at His power.
For instance, the biblical love I wrote about yesterday cannot be generated on the human level. Yet it is one of His incredible gifts to make it possible.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God . . . . We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:7; 19)
Loving one another is only the beginning. He also tells me: “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). That is not natural. Most Christians will say, ‘Love the person but not the sin’ but if we are honest, we cannot get past our distaste and even hatred for sin, particularly sin that hurts us or our loved ones. We feel anger against those who do such things. However, Jesus said,
“If you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” (Matthew 5:44-47)
At that time, Israel considered tax-gatherers as traitors and Gentiles as spiritual outcasts. To love them meant dropping all prejudice and animosity. Jesus explained how God “causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
The love of God goes that far for “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Regardless of sin, rebellion, shaking fists in His face, out of love, Jesus willingly endured the pain and shame of the cross and paid the price of our redemption. That is divine love in action!
I’m to love as He loves — impartially and sacrificially. Again, this sounds impossible but God enables. When He came into my life, His Holy Spirit began producing this love that He asks for. I remember sitting on my front step marveling at the change in the way I felt about people. Since then, this is still a marvel. In my flesh, I care only for myself, but when the Holy Spirit is in charge, that changes to a concern and care for others, even those hated by the rest of the world. This is a great gift.
PRAY: Jesus, from yesterday’s devotions, I’m still thinking how love requires humility, obedience, and sacrifice. You demonstrate all three perfectly. I fall short, mostly because of pride, self-interest, and wanting to be loved rather than giving it. You change all that with the power of the Holy Spirit and I am thankful. At the same time, I know full well that love is costly and does not always feel good. It caused You to sweat blood and die! Likely that will never happen to me, but love often means abandoning what I’d like to do for the sake of doing what is best for someone else. Keep forgiving my selfishness and replacing it with Your love for others. Help me be more than willing to love all, including enemies, more perfectly.
PONDER: I just read “The Last Thing He Said to Me” which is a work of fiction, but without intending it, this story demonstrates the love of God. The protagonist gave up everything that was important to her so she could love and care for someone who hated her. This story is a timely and powerful example to me of how God’s love is far beyond my human capacity and how much I need to live in the power of God’s Spirit.
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