See what great love the Father has
lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we
are! (1 John 3:1, NIV)
Love extols kindness, attention and
affection. Love gives, sacrifices, moves, does, tries, cries, feels, sees,
becomes, saves, lives, reaches, changes, touches, encourages, pushes, lifts,
remembers, helps, stands and overflows with grace because love stands through
anything. Love is consistently kind, sacrifices all, dies to selfishness and
self-centeredness, moves in dedication, tries in all ways, cries deeply, always
feels, sees all, becomes what is necessary, lays down its very life to save,
gives without condition, reaches beyond danger and damage, changes bitterness
and brokenness, touches all hurting needs, encourages in the brightest and darkest,
pushes through all impediments, lifts up our very souls, remembers details,
forgets hurts and sins, helps appropriately anointing its actions with grace.
Some note that love is an action or a verb.
Of course love is a verb but no verb with a thousand adverbs can describe the
infinite capacities and potential of love, as it does or is doing something. No
verb or adverb is adequate at any moment to define love, as love overflows and leaks
out from any descriptive attempt to capture or contain it. Some note that love
does, but as surely as love does; it balances the scales with what it does not
do. For as surely as love does, it rests securely on what it does not do as well.
For example, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy … (1
Corinthians 13:4, NKJV).” The essence of
love ironically shows its value, significance and power; not by taking, declaring,
demanding or claiming love but by giving, sacrificing, releasing and
demonstrating love.
God is love (1 John 4:16) and He does
demonstrates His love for us by His actions in loving the unworthy (Romans 5:8)
but love is not simply in His doing or His not doing; it is Who He is. What is
done or not done is simply the action and demonstration of His love. God was
love in creation desiring relationship. God is love in His steadfast and longsuffering
caring attentive love given to us while offering abundant grace as He withholds
judgment. God is love, which is love to come, as He will welcome us into His
loving presence for eternity through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is no beginning to His love nor is
there any end to His love. Love is the essence of God, without beginning and
without end. God is infinite and so is His love.
Still as finite creatures, we struggle
as we cannot define the infinite love of God. Maybe it is enough to sense and
be ever grateful in the fullness of God’s great and extravagant love poured out
upon us through our Savior’s grace. Maybe it is enough to open up our hearts to
His love as it overfills our hearts through the communion of the Holy Spirit. We
will be blessed over and over again as Christ dwells within us and we can come
to know “how wide and long and high and deep” (Ephesians 3:18) His love is as we
are filled up with the fullness of God.
As human beings created in the image of
God; we were created with great capacities to love and we see love all around
us in the sacrificial, caring and powerful actions of people loving others. As followers
of Christ, we are also called to tap into God’s great and extravagant love which
now richly dwells in us. His love for us;
changes us through the grace of Jesus Christ as we become a “new creation” in
Him. This should compel us to love as we have been loved. When we love one
another with Christ’s love, we leave the mark of being a Disciple of Christ
(John 13:34). Let us always love with His love, in word and deed. It is how we
best demonstrate that we are children of God.
“Little children, let us not love in
word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18, ESV).
Suggested Reading … 1 John 3:1
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