Love, The Final Word September 1, 2014
Ourage is a marvel. Earlier generations worked very hard just to get food,much less a balanced diet; but we easily and inexpensively buy fresh out ofseason food from around the world.
What is still difficult, and perhaps more difficult sincewe’re used to getting things we want quickly and easily, is love. Beingrich in goods but poor in love is acknowledged to be misery. Yet one canbe poor in goods and rich in love and have great joy. Love seems to bemore important, but in some ways harder.
Even having the vocabulary to speak about love is a challengefor us. The ancient Greeks distinguished (at least) between passion,friendship, playfulness, selfless love, obsession, comfortableness,self-love, and family affection. One suspects that if love wereeasy, Amazon would not be offering nearly half a million books about love.
How does God regard love? In both Matthew 3, at Jesus’baptism, and in Matthew 17, at Jesus’ transfiguration, the Father calls him “mybeloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”. Out of all the powerful thingsto be said about Jesus, the Father wants us to know that He loves theSon. In John 15, as Jesus is about to go to the cross he repeatedly tellshis disciples of the Father’s love for him, Jesus love for the disciples,and the disciples’ need to love each other as Jesus himself loves them.
Paul Tripp nails how we fail, “Without being aware of it,our relationships are often about what we want out of our lives rather thanwhat God wants for our lives. So we have an ‘I love you and have a wonderfulplan for your life’ approach to relationships with other people. Often we’redisappointed with a relationship at the very moment when God is producingthrough this relationship exactly what he wanted
to produce. Our problem is that our agenda doesn’t agree with God’s!”
Godly love is never separate from the glory of God nor fromstriving for the good of the recipient.
From 1 Corinthians 13 we are reminded that:
– Love is better than having every single spiritual gift,miracle producing faith, and mind-blowing determination
– Love is enduring, hopeful, and unending
From John 13 we know that the distinguishing mark of Jesusfollowers is that they love one another. Loving other sinners and lovingGod in a sinful world will both cost you but they will gain you infinitelymore. Loving will make you more like Jesus “the founder and perfecter ofour faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despisingthe shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”