God’s love — not like ours!

 

Today’s reading says that Christians tend to view the love of God in the same way that we love others, which is often selfishly and with impatience, suspicion, and conditions attached. That is, I most love those people who have characteristics that please me, and this can warp my idea of God’s love — thinking that He only loves me when I do the things that please Him.

This attitude is some of the reason Paul wrote to the Galatians. They were trying to please God by keeping rules so he wrote:

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:2–3)

I understand this and am aware of the flesh and those selfish motives and actions that are contrary to living like Jesus. I’m also aware that loving others is not the same as my old nature’s version of love. Jesus said:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35)

God’s love is unconditional, wants the best for me and is well described, both by the written Word and His living Word. But still the flesh tries to ruin it. I’ve realized from these and other verses and by the conviction of the Holy Spirit that when another Christian loves me with that God-like love, I selfishly enjoy its appeal to my old nature when I should be seeing it as a gift from God to show me how to obey the above new commandment! The people who are unselfish and love others like Jesus loves are models, teachers, instructors — not only a wonderful gift from God, but sent to show me what I should be doing also.

Abiding in the love of God is not wrong. It is the only way to survive the storms of life. Several other Christians have shown me how to love others like Jesus does by simply being like Him and I need to learn from that, not just selfishly eat it up like a bratty kid who will not share her birthday cake. God does not give His love to me so I will hoard it, but so I will share it.

Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

The older King James version says: “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:5) so I searched the meaning of “poured into” and the sense is: “to be expressed, be poured out.” That is, God loves me so that His love will go forth from me, not for me to hoard it for my own enjoyment. This gives new meaning to verses like these two:

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13:16)

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. (Romans 12:13)

Surely the needs of others includes that amazing love. While sharing it with others, it will be a sacrifice, a giving up of my time, effort, and selfish I-wants, but such sharing is never going to leave me bereft for God’s love in inexhaustible. It never runs out. I can give it away and He pours more into my life.

PRAY: Of course I know this is true. It is the doing of it that often eludes me. Jesus, You are the source of all goodness and loving kindness, yet You have sent me several examples of how You want that to look in my life, not just for me to enjoy but to imitate. Thank You for Your sweet, unlimited love demonstrated. Enable me to be more teachable and to learn from and imitate these who are far more obedient than I have been.

Unity made possible

 

READ Ezekiel 37–40

Most know the song with these words: “Leg bone connected knee bone, Knee bone connected thighbone, Thighbone connected hipbone, Don’t you hear the word of the Lord?” Not everyone knows it is a Black spiritual based on Ezekiel 37, a vision God gave His prophet of dead people brought to life by His power. This vision depicts God’s plan for His exiled people to restore them to their own land.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:11–14)

Not only that, He would unite Judah and Israel that they would be one nation rather than two kingdoms:

Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God . . . . I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. (37:21–28)

God united His people and set them apart for Himself. He still does that. Recently, a couple who divorced twenty years ago were separately led to the Lord. They came together as God restored their love and commitment to one another. They now help other married couples whose marriages are in trouble. A similar reunion happened with a couple in our family.

The NT tells of a larger union when God did the seemingly impossible by uniting Jews and Gentiles through Jesus Christ:

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles . . .  were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. (Ephesians 2:11–16)

Restored relationships begin with being brought into a faith relationship with Jesus. As sin is confessed and hearts are changed, division becomes unbearable. God’s people want to be in harmony with one another. Sometimes broken marriages are restored, or family feuds come to an end, or personal animosity ceases. God is a God of peace and when His Spirit lives in a human heart, that peace becomes a powerful motivation. We are called to live “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:2–3)

Someone posted on social media a quote that ‘once the world found love, we would have peace,’ no doubt not realizing that true love has only one source:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (1 John 4:7–9)

Lord, may Your Spirit fill me with Your love today. I know that apart from You, genuine love and any unity with others would be impossible.

 

The love of God

How can the love of God be explained? The ‘love chapter’ (below, in part) does it with words, yet as Tozer writes, it is best understood when experienced.

We were members of a large church in California whose pastor is well-known. This church had many elders and deacons. We didn’t know many of these people, but one stands out in my memory because there was something about him that is unforgettable; when standing near him, I felt as if I was standing in the presence of the Lord. I realize now that this ‘something’ was the love of God. This man was so filled with the Spirit of God and cared so much about other people that it seemed to flow out of him.

The ‘love chapter’ begins with the importance of love in a description of how it changes lives . . .

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1–3)

Wonderful speech is not a bad thing, but without love it has little value. Noise can be loud and important, but ineffective. Prophetic power and doctrinal acuity mean nothing without love. Faith that changes things, even moves mountains is nothing without love, as is great generosity and personal sacrifice.

In other words, the very best a person can do, the most miraculous and self-effacing actions and offerings are possible without love, but God says they have no value unless the love of God is in them. I can be motivated by many things, selfish or noble, but love outshines them all.

Of course this pushes me to ask myself how to know what is love and what isn’t. The description in verses 4 and forward are helpful, but not quite enough. I know patient people whose kindness comes across as having personal motives. I can rejoice in the truth and be a pain in the neck doing it. Love goes beyond that because it is not a surface action flowing from any source other than the heart of God. I cannot ‘make’ love come out of me because it is something that God does.

In thinking about those who display the love of God, my best thought is that they love God with a depth that many people never reach. Their humility and sense of His grace in their lives is so powerful that it permeates all that they think and do. This love is about experiencing His love in the greatest and most sincere way possible. It comes to those who realize just how much they have been forgiven and blessed. No pride, no self-glory, nothing in their lives is about them. It is all for Jesus.

^^^^^^^

First, I thank You Lord for the examples of those who love You in this way and hold up a standard of love that can be sought after and reached. Second, I know I’m not like them, and even making that evaluation proves it. Love is not focused on self or comparing myself with others. God is the focus. I pray You will persist with transformation that I might be more like You. Keep my thoughts and concerns focused the way You want them to be . . . that I might glorify You and more deeply love You.