My family and I live in an older house. It was built in 1914
and the exterior walls were built with adobe bricks. It’s a solid house, with
level floors. The main reason that it is so solid is not the walls, which are
substantial, but the foundation that it was built on. The foundation was built
of stone, quarried from who-knows-where, stacked and mortared by who-knows-whom, but done
in such a way that over 100 years later the house is just as solid as the day
the first pastor's family moved in.
A good foundation is necessary for anything that is intended
to last. A building needs a good foundation to last for 100 years. A novel
needs the foundation of a strong plot in order for people to want to read it 100
years later. A marriage needs a large measure of love as its foundation if it
is to endure through the lifetime of those making promises to each other.
Love isn’t a word that is easy to pin down. It is both a
noun, or a thing, as well as being a verb, or something that we do. And there
are as many different shades of meaning to the word "love" as there
are people in the world. We all have different way to define love, to experience
love and to act in, or with, love. The differences can be so great that what one person
might call love would be considered to be the opposite of love by another person.
The Bible has its own understating of love, and one place where
we can find it is 1
John 4:7-11. John tells us that the origin of human love is in the love of God
that is first poured out an humans. Said otherwise, in order for humans to love anyone
else with true love they first have to have received love from God.
John goes further, to say that God's love doesn’t just come
to people randomly, or willy nilly, but that it is a very specific, intentional
gift of his. In verses 9 and 10 John writes:
"In
this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only
Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but
that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins."
God's love was made known in the sending of his son, Jesus,
who was the propitiation for human sin. Propitiation is a fancy word that means
atonement, which is a fancy word that means to "make reparation for a wrong or injury." All of which is
to say that there is a problem between God and humans, the sin problem, which
God himself makes right by giving his very Son to do the work of removing that
sin and restoring wholeness with God.
If you have turned to Jesus, seeking for him to forgive your
sin, then you are someone who has truly received God's love. If not, then
whatever you may be calling love in your life is just a weak and poor
imitation. It may feel powerful but it is not a love that is built on the very
firm and unmovable foundation of God.
If you're a regular reader of my blog, then you what comes
next…
Either, turn to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin, so
that you can receive and live in the true love of God, or…
…having received God's love through the saving work of Jesus
on your behalf, thank God again and ask him to lead you to someone else that you
can share the love of Jesus with, and…
…let all of this be to the glory of God, now and forever.
Amen.
Scripture quotations
are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by
Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All
rights reserved.
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