tagged: Church, Love, mission, Strider

Of the Father’s Love Begotten

Posted by Strider in Bible & Theology

I love Christmas and the celebration of the Savior.  I love what He was, and is, and what He demonstrated the Father’s heart to be.  While we were yet sinners Christ came and died for us.  Far from deserving a savior we didn’t even want one, much less asked for one.  And yet He came, He lived, taught, loved, and died for us.  He demonstrated the Father’s heart in so many unique and unheard of ways.  One of my pet peeves is when Christians say things like, ‘I am tired of hearing about ‘love’.'  I am told that, ‘there is more to the Gospel than just ‘love’.  I am told that, ‘Love is not enough’.  I hate hearing these things.  They are not true at all.  Of course, what people mean by these is usually not love but sentimentality. Our problem is that we allow the world to define love for us and then we are surprised when we have so much trouble understanding the Word when it talks about a God of love.  We should let God define love for us and let the world deal with it.  Sentimentality is defined as being over-emotional, love is defined by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13.  I think that our readers can catch the distinction pretty quickly (I am just trying to ‘hope all things’ here).

So, if love is all we need how are we living that out?  Jesus lived it out for us starting in a stable.  He was persecuted and hunted down and forced to flee to Egypt.  He was honored by wise men from afar but disrespected by those in His own home town of Nazareth.  Even His own brothers did not honor him during His brief sojourn with us.  He never insisted on His own way.  Consider how I might have handled Peter’s denial before Jesus’ trial.

Peter- Lord, I will follow you to the end.

Me- Darn straight, Peter.  You are going to be tempted to disown me tonight and I am warning you ahead of time that you had better not do it!

Jesus is not like me and that is telling of me isn’t it?  Jesus did tell the truth but He also allowed people to be who they were.  When the rich young ruler walked away Jesus let him go.  That is amazing to me because the passage clearly states that Jesus ‘loved him.’  In my life love so often means begging, pleading, and manipulating.  In Jesus life He offers a clear choice and waits patiently.  How patiently?  Well, it has been 2000 years and that’s a good bit longer than I have ever waited for anything.  I thought Jacob working for the first seven years to get his bride was crazy- working an additional seven years was just plan wrong.  Jesus has waited 2000 years for His bride so far and  still counting.

Let’s keep going with this theme.  Jesus was never jealous and He trusted His followers to a ridiculous level.  In John 4 you have the disciples baptizing the faithful (even Judas?) and even today He acts in accordance with our prayers and alongside our labor.  That’s like trusting my eleven year old son with my bank account.  It’s crazy but Jesus walks His talk.  When He loves He loves fully.  He trust us not because of what we are but because of what love is making us to become.

Love is kind.  This one gets us in a lot of trouble.  In my work I do a lot of disaster relief with very poor Muslim people. Very often I have a situation where we are talking to a small group of people who have just experienced a terrible trauma and the local Mullah will come up and say very authoritatively, ‘God is kind!’  Everyone becomes silent and stops complaining.   The message is clear.  All things come from God, God is kind, so whatever terrible event you just had was from God, it’s good and God will punish you if you gripe about it.  We do the same, you know.  We keep redefining ‘kind’ to cover all of our terrible life experiences.  The Gospel tells us good news.  The good news is that this world, this situation, and even my very being is not what God intended and does not have to stay this way.  Love comes down in the form of Jesus and shows us how to change the world and even our very nature.  The way is the cross and the power is His blood.  He is very kind and in His kindness He has shown us the way of escape from all that is hateful, selfish, and destructive.

Yes, the love I am trying to describe means more than giving your change to the guy in the Santa suit outside the shops on your way to purchase the latest greatest toy that you hope will keep your kids out of your hair for the next few weeks until they go back to school.  It requires more faith and less sacrifice than you can imagine.  I am not asking you to give more to missions or take in a homeless person- that’s way too easy.  I am asking you to believe what Jesus believes and walk the way of the cross with the faith that He walked it.  I don’t always get this right but more and more He is making me able to stand.  A story at this point will make my point clear.

A few weeks ago I had a run in with my eleven-going-on-twenty-seven- year old son.  We had guests over and we were beginning to play a game.  He wanted to play with us but I told him that it was already late for him as it was a school night and he should go to bed now.  I assured him that he could play with us next time but he uncharacteristically dug his heels in.  He was furious.  He stomped his feet.  He declared loudly that he was not going to bed.  He yelled at me.  He called  me names and told me he hated me.  Finally, he swore at me.  My wife kept waiting for me to kill him.  But the Lord was guiding me that night.  I told him that he was most certainly going to bed.  My voice remained very calm as I assured him that I did love him and I ignored his cursing entirely.  I walked him back to his room and stood in the door.  He was seething as I stood calmly facing him in the doorway.  I assured him of my love for him.  I assured him that in my love he was going to go to bed but he could decide to go to sleep or not.  I wondered if this was going to work.  I wondered if I should beat him for swearing at me as I most assuredly would have been beaten had I said those things to my dad.  Suddenly, he convulsed.  He fell forward into my arms sobbing and crying.  He apologized for what he said and how he acted.  Love broke him completely.  I really do love my son and he really does love me and now we both know something.  Love is the strongest weapon we have to face any enemy.

We keep saying we believe in love but we keep acting in fear.  We keep saying that what worked for that eleven year old boy wont work for that eighteen year old girl, that 25 year old womanizer, that 45 year old alcoholic, that 55 year old deacon, that 70 year old stubborn grandfather.  We keep saying yes, but…  Well, here is a challenge for you.  Instead of coming up with lots of stories proving how wrong I am about love, go out this week and do what I have just suggested.  Speak the truth, love unconditionally, demand nothing, expect miracles.  Then tell me about that.