07/30/2021
From the moment we first believe, when Jesus comes to dwell in us, we receive a new and abundant ability to love, but for it to reach its full capacity we must nurture our faith, and gain day by day a greater understanding of the heart of Christ. As we know Him better, and He increases in us, so does the fullness of God. In this way we are blessed, and those around us come to experience God’s love for them… some realizing it for the very first time.
“that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge… that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Ephesians 3:17, 19 KJV
By virtue of our faith in Jesus Christ we learn to love in a new and mighty way. It is so difficult for us to understand unrequited love. We might experience it for a time, but it quickly fades away. However God loves us completely, even when we don’t return that love as we should, or our sins have tainted it so completely that it is unrecognizable. It is this kind of love that comes with our faith in Jesus… a love beyond our knowledge and understanding… a love so complete that in it death seems reasonable, and a price worth paying. Would we as men and women have made such a sacrifice; to not merely give our own life, but to give the life of our son whom we love beyond description?
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
1 John 4:10 KJV
So, how do we receive such an amazing love, and are we able to return it fully? We can only hope to do this when Jesus abides in us. When we witness the Father’s love for us we begin to love Him in return, and in Christ that love matures…
“We love him, because he first loved us.”
1 John 4:19 KJV
As our love matures, and grows more Christlike, it reflects the love of God, then, as we begin to shine and glow with its radiance, and brilliance, we become the incarnation of that love to those around us who witness this spectacle. In this way we can love them, even those who seem so unlovable, and although it is beyond our understanding, it presents itself as real and tangible.
There was a time during my schooling when my mathematics teacher performed a problem on the chalkboard which allowed him to guess a number that I had secretly selected. At first I was simply amazed, then I memorized the formula so that I could repeat it for my family so that they too could be amazed, and finally, after much study I understood it. God’s love is much like this… at first we are amazed that He could possibly love us, then we accept it as fact and show it to others so that they can feel His love too, and finally we not only feel it, and share it, but we understand why He loves us as He does… and we likewise love others.
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”
1 John 4:7 KJV
Where are we in this amazing formula of God’s love? Are we still demonstrating the love of Jesus, or have we come to know the fullness of God?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for loving us while we were still living in sin, and thank you for your patience in waiting for us in unrequited love, as we learned to love your Son Jesus, and you. Thank you for sending Him to live, suffer, die, and be resurrected for us. Thank you for teaching us to love as Jesus loves, and to love one another with this fullness of your love. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who loves us beyond our understanding. Praised be your name for demonstrating what love is truly meant to be through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Wash us clean of sin in the blood of Jesus, and find us worthy, in this way, of spending eternity worshipping you in your presence, and before all creation.
“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
1 John 4:16-20 KJV
Rich Forbes