The Love of Christ part 3
It's only when we understand how loved we are, that we can begin to truly love one another. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. Because the New Commandment is to love one another AS JESUS loves us. Which brings me to my point for today: It is only when we understand the love of Christ that we can understand how loved we are. It is only when we understand that He loved us enough to literally die for us that we begin to understand what love truly is. I think it's all about love. You probably know that if you've heard me preach or read any of my Rants of books. So it's very important to me to understand what love is. And, look, I understand that I don't understand. I know that all we know of Him is the outer fringes of His glory. I get it. We can--and will, and should--spend our entire everlasting lives testing the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of His love for us. And never coming close to the limits. Because there ARE no limits. But I want to document a couple of verses that I think give good definitions of love. To me, the love of Christ is as follows: "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13 NLT). "I will gladly spend myself and all I have for you, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me" (2 Corinthians 12:15 NLT). And, "God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him" (1 John 4:9 NLT). And the common theme here is giving. Love IS giving. Giving all you have and all you are. That's what Jesus did. He gave His life FOR us, and He gave His life TO us. Because He wanted us to have it. He wanted us to experience His everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life. Not by US trying (and failing) to live it. But by HIM living it in us, and through us, and as us. Because He didn't just lay His life down. He took it back up again. He gave everything He is and everything He has to us, by giving HIMSELF to us. By giving us a gift and also making sure we can enjoy it. That's the love of Christ. Not just dying for us... but living IN us! One more verse for today: Galatians 2:20 (NLT), "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Get it? The New Commandment is for the New Man! Not me living "for" Him, but Him living IN me! Me living in Him. Living BY Him. Living BY faith. And, as I always like to point out, faith is not a blind leap. We don't try to make something happen though faith. Faith is knowing and believing that something has already happened. Faith is believing God loves us because He SHOWED us He loves us. Faith is the EVIDENCE of things not seen. And faith works by love. Because having faith in God is having faith in love. Because God is love! I'm telling you, this revelation of the love of Christ changes everything. Instead of looking for love in all the wrong places we can begin to share the love that we already have. And that is what makes life worth living. That is what makes it possible to live life. Because to live is to love... and to love is to live!