08/22/2019
We have knowledge of Jesus, and often think that is enough; we study and know of Him and think this is the pinnacle of righteousness, but it isn’t. We think that by our understanding we can find the fullness of God but we are mistaken. Loving God and Jesus Christ surpasses all else, and our knowledge, and the other things, are only meant to help increase our ability to love them more. Loving, and being loved by Jesus; this is the way we can experience the fullness of God.
“and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:19 ESV
Even as God spoke to Israel in the book of Jeremiah it is true for us, God loves us now and forever. This was not new in the coming of Jesus, no, God’s love existed long before creation, and exceeds our ability to comprehend; it existed between the Father and Son, and it drove Him to offer up His Son for us. This is a mystery that can only be comprehended within the bounds of an unfathomable and everlasting love; the love of God.
“the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
Jeremiah 31:3 ESV
We read stories of men and women who sacrifice their lives for others, and even though some of us might not have read the first verse of scripture we all honor, and are drawn to such behavior... why is this so?
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13 ESV
Why do we feel a connection with the sacrifice of one person for another? It is because of our deep rooted desire to experience love... not just the notion, or the word, but the action, the feeling, the quickening that comes from it. When we lay down our lives for someone it is mysterious in its depth and fullness, and brings us closer to the love that God has for us...
“"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 ESV
Love, it is the foundation of creation.. not stone, creativity, or intellect, but that one mysterious thing we like to call an emotion... yet love is much more than emotion. This truth is revealed to us over and over again in scripture, and yet we still believe we can study and think our way into eternity...
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
Love comes first... we should want to know Jesus, and through Him God because we love them, not to know them so that we can decide whether we want to love them. Love is mysterious in this way; call it infatuation, love at first sight, or being enamored, but love precedes all else... even in human relationships. Without it we have nothing but lust or a reasoned arrangement, and these can be walked away from just as easily as they were entered into. Love is perfect, and eternal by nature. Listen to it’s description and pay close attention today to the closing words of this passage “as for knowledge, it will pass away”, and then what follows...
“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. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-10 ESV
God gives each of us gifts to help us do His will in our lives, even intelligence and knowledge, but each of us is founded on, and made to love, and the greatest form of that love is our love for God... followed closely by our love for one another. Our faith isn’t based on our own gifts and abilities, but on God’s love. We are told this specifically in the two great commandments; listen to Jesus as He says...
“And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."”
Matthew 22:37-40 ESV
So, by loving God we seek knowledge of Him, and by loving Him we learn how to love one another. In the end all else dissolves, but our love for God, and Jesus; it is eternal. Do you love, or only know? Have you rationalized by convincing yourself that calling Jesus Lord without loving Him is enough? It is not... so my friend don’t just seek Him with your intellect... find Him with your heart. If you do this then all the rest; the knowledge, goodness, and every other gift of a righteous life will have meaning, and He will dwell in you, and you in Him, forevermore.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your love. Thank you for this love that is deeper than our ability to understand, and for the sacrifice of your Son Jesus Christ that rose up out of this love for us. Help us Loving Father to love you as you have loved us; circumcise our hearts so that we can love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Teach us Father that the things we value in this life, even the gifts of our intellect, will all pass away in your presence, and that your love will be our foundation in eternity. Just as gold is purified, make us perfect in our love for you. Even as the impurities are purged from silver, make us sterling in our love for one another. In the presence of Jesus we find forgiveness, and are loved, and your grace perfects us. Thank you Holy Father for loving us when yet we were sinners, and sent your Son to redeem us when we were undeserving. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God of love, and great are you who reaches out to us in mercy and grace. Praised be your name, and wonderful are you as you strip away the pride we take in our human frailties. Merciful are you in making straight the eternal path of righteousness, faith, and love, and just are you as you level the mountains that divide us from one another... Praise be to you Father for accepting us equally into your love... no more disabilities, no more crutches, no more separation in knowledge or intellect... all of us becoming your children, heirs and joint heirs with Jesus, and equal in your love. This is your mercy and grace; that love should overcome all, and that you should be glorified in it forevermore!
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
1 John 5:3-4 ESV
Rich Forbes