Life Matters - March 13, 2024
God made us to love and to be loved. Life is unhealthy without love. Love is the essence of Life. God is love. There are hundreds of references about love in the Bible where its meaning can be understood in the context. Of those hundreds there is a verse in John 15:13-14 directing our attention to the surest, the sincerest, the most from-the-heart displays of love in the oft-troubled history of mankind. “Greater love hath no man then this.” Jesus said, “That a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” In verse 12 He had reiterated the second commandment when He said, ‘’This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.’’
That commandment seems possible, at times even easy, when love is reciprocal, when it is returned by the one to whom it is given. We may, however, be called upon to lay down our lives by giving up our own will for the good of another, or others, without any real hope of return. Of those many ways the surrender of physical life here for the sake of others, or another, is the best understood, the most believed, expression of love the world has ever known, is it not? And of that best understood, that most believed, expression of love, the giving of one’s life, there is an expression of love that stands out among all others. God expressed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ, in sending a part of Himself, His Word, to earth to give His life for the very people who killed His physical body. But they could not kill His soul. (Matthew 10:28, 1 Peter 3:19) The grave could not hold Him! But let us remember that He was tempted because He took on flesh as we. Let us remember the sweat drops like blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. Let us remember His surrender. Let us remember His travail. His sufferin. His integrity. That He came through victorious, for us. For all of us. The sinless, spotless Lamb of God offered for us during the Passover commemoration of the miraculous exodus of the children of Israel as they left the bondage of Egypt. Where the death-angel had passed over every house that had the blood of a spotless lamb, without blemish, painted on the doorposts and lintel of the front entrance. May the front entrance to our hearts be guarded by the cleansing blood of Jesus shed for us. For all of us.
The perfect love of Jesus endured even when no one was left. When all either openly hated Him or had left Him. Even one who had declared he never would. Was ready to die with Him.
Partaking of that love of Jesus is the “perfect love that casts out fear.” It is the only love that stays constant. Even though we may falter, and at times fall flat on our face, we have the privilege to stay on our face, giving all to God until we forgive, are forgiven, and His love returns. The indwelling of Christ is the secret of Christian strength. We are human and have to deal with very human emotions, but the love of Jesus Christ is constant, a treasure worth dying for. And worth living for.
This world, where Hollywood and fairytale romance novels present love as if it were a self-serving sensuality only focused on ‘’this moment’’ as all else disappears into oblivion, has many problems. But its major problem is that being momentarily oblivious to reality does not change anything. Sooner or later, and likely sooner, oblivion fades away and reality returns. We may as well, no we had better, live in reality. Where love that is true has its way. Truth is the vindicator of love. If we do not love, “we lie and do not the truth.” (1 John 1:6 )
Through our physical senses (touch, taste, smell, hear, see) the devil is waging an all out war against moral Truth. And now, with advances in AI development, the former foundation of digital technology is being built upon, pushing the hearing and seeing experience ever farther into the blurring of what is real and unreal, of what is false and of what is True.
May our love transcend all confusion. May it be, and stay, real. Love for God, family, friends, and all we encounter on this wayfaring journey through time to eternity. Where Love continues to be the essence of Life. As it is here.
Life Matters!