This week has been a very busy one as Andrew
and I prepare to transition to Guatemala for a month for language
training. This week has been one of
wrestling through this idea of what it means to love, and more than that, what
is a biblical definition of hate?
1 John 1 contrasts light and dark, as well as
love and hate.
vv. 9-11
read, “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in
darkness. Whoever loves his brother
abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the
darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going,
because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
God has been teaching me a lot about His love
for a couple years now.
These instructions have come through the
picture of a shepherd affectionately caring for, and intimately knowing his
sheep. They have come through sun shadow
hearts on trees, and recognizing more intimately that Jesus died in MY place…
this was a very personal sacrifice, for ME to know Him. Through truly understanding that God is my
Father, and that the sacrifice of His Son was completely for my reconciliation,
my ability to fellowship with Him… with no barriers. The understanding that a Father disciplines
the son that He loves, and that His discipline is kind, tender, loving, and
excruciatingly painful all at once… but it is truly, entirely, and completely
for my good. The beautiful imagery of
being a parent, and experiencing what unconditional love is. Of being a wife, and recognizing the picture
of God’s love for the church in a broken, but sacred union.
His love is everywhere. Communicated in a billion creative, and
wholly lovely ways.
Here’s the thing that I am recognizing most
intimately. His love is sacrificial,
comforting, unconditional, faithful, refining, and life changing…. And he
communicates to us that His love… is perfected in us. Not in us in a self-glorifying way, but in us
as we portray his love biblically, and sacrificially for others. As we die to ourselves, we not only
understand his love more intimately, but we are naturally compelled to
demonstrate this life-giving love to others, and most especially other
believers.
So what if the opposite of love, isn’t just
hostile hatred, or disfavor towards others… deliberate decisions of harm? What if the opposite of love is more passive
than that? What if hatred is not seeking
reconciliation with our brother because we don’t feel like the offense is big
enough, and we arrogantly don’t want to admit that tiny thing that offended
us? What if hatred is choosing to use my
time in self-centered ways, that hedge in my comfort, my family time, my
resources? What if hatred is a lack of
pursuit of other people because I am caught up in making sure I am giving
myself care and time away? What if
hatred is failing to pull in my child close, and really listen, because I am
scrolling through facebook? What if
hatred is more passive than we ever imagined?
Ephesians 3 is fantastic, you should read the
whole chapter, but a specific portion struck me anew this week…
.16 …that according to the riches of his
glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his
Spirit in your inner being,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the
saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of
God.”
We understand God’s love more keenly, when
we, through the Holy Spirit, supernaturally love other believers. Together, through this love, we comprehend
the breadth, length, heighth, and depth of God’s love… a love that surpasses
knowledge. It is supernaturally known,
and supernaturally given. It is not
something we are capable of in our flesh.
But, through us, His love is perfected. Through us, the spiritual forces marvel at
God’s wisdom (Ephesians 3:10). Things in
which angels long to look (1 Peter 1:12).
This is not goodwill towards men.
It’s not volunteering at a food bank.
It’s not a humanistic effort towards peace
and love.
It’s not giving money out of our excess.
It is a supernatural encouragement, and
unity, and fellowship within the body.
That requires daily dying to our own selfish agendas, our own prideful
refusal to seek unity at the cost of discomfort, shame, or slander. We must put to death this rotting carcass
through daily renewing of the mind. What
if through this, the world would recognize something powerfully different about
the church? What if our love for other
believers is more important than anything else?
What if this unity was the means through which God wants to proclaim the
gospel to a lost world?
More frightening, what if our failure to do
this kind of love well is the very means through which Satan blinds eyes, and
destroys those who are lost?
We, humble clay pots, are a part of something
so far beyond our understanding that we are only able to accomplish it through
the Holy Spirit.
Comments
Post a Comment