Wonderful Story of Love (#2)

The previous article in Trying to Walk, Connecting with God (#1)", considered how God expects people to "find" and "connect" with Him. If you haven't read it, now would be a good time to do that, and then come back to "Wonderful Story of Love (#2)". This article will be the completion of some unfinished business.

After an update, "Connecting with God" became "Connecting with God (#1)" and ended with the connection discussed in that article being compared to placing an electrical plug in a socket, i.e. quite mechanical. Such a connection is necessary to bring electrical power to an appliance, but if the breaker is off, no power will flow.

A "mechanical" connection with God is much the same. Such a connection is one in which, through the evidence God has provided, we have brought ourselves to believe in God and discover His will for us in the Bible. We have placed the plug in the socket, but there is no energy flowing..

The "energy" that is lacking is love. We are not truly connected to God in any functional sense until love is flowing through that circuit in both directions.

Love is the "be all end all" of Christianity. Love is the "sine qua non" of our relationship with God. John tells us that "God is love" in 1 John 4:8. Jesus makes it clear in Matt. 22:40-42 that there is no commandment greater than loving God, that loving your fellow man is a close second, and that it is on these two concepts that everything in the Old Testament is anchored.

Paul writes the same thing in different words in Romans 13:8-10 where he says, "love is the fulfillment of the law" and then goes on to explain how that is so. 1 Cor. 13 is a whole chapter on the supremacy and necessity of love in the Christian life. Paul begins that chapter by informing us, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing."

Many people (especially younger ones who are concerned about "falling" into it) question what "love" actually is, or means. God provides the answer in John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Let's analyze this statement and find out what love is.

God loved the world, and because of that He did something. He gave a precious gift to the object of His love. He did it willingly because He loved. He did it because the object of His love needed it to keep from perishing. He did it so that not only would the object of His love not perish, but instead would be able to spend eternity in Heaven with God. (See, "For the Love of God.") That is how, from God's perspective, love works. Love is the willingness to sacrifice what is precious to you so that the object of your love can achieve what they need. Love is willingly placing the needs of others above your own desires.

From God to us, that happened by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to redeem us from our sins. The guilt of our sins would have condemned us to eternity in Hell, separated from God. We don't want that, and because of love He didn't want it for us; to the extent that Jesus was offered as a sacrifice to cover our sins and redeem us from our deserved fate. (Through the unity of the Trinity, see "Mono Times Three", the sacrifice of Jesus is the sacrifice of God.)

This is one of those Bible references which we can read, or quote, but need to ask ourselves, "Do we really comprehend?" Can you imagine a mayor seeing you in need and putting aside his or her business to make an actual sacrifice of something precious to them to get you out of a bad situation? But we're not talking about the mayor, the governor, nor the president. We're talking about somebody before whom Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar taken together stand as nothing. We're talking about Jehovah God almighty who spoke and the universe came into existence. He saw your need and sacrificed His precious Son for you, and for me. That is say-able, but incomprehensible.

From us to God it is our willing and joyous surrender of our desires to His will because we want nothing more than to please Him. So we love Him. We willingly sacrifice things that are precious to us, to Him and for Him. We offer our time, our money, our obedience, our worship and praise in sincerity and with cheer because it is all we have with which we can show our love because He first loved us. When this is the case we truly have connected with God. Anything less than this and we are as sounding brass and clanging cymbal; we are nothing and it profits us nothing.

This is truly what the Bible is all about. It is not a list of rote routines to perform, nor mechanical observances that God requires of us. It is a story of love that has been showered on us and an explanation of how we can best respond to that love which we can never repay, and will never deserve. It gives understanding of our place in God's creation. It explains how we should be "trying to walk" to find our way to Him where we can live happily ever after in His presence. It is, indeed, a wonderful story of love.