What Else? part 2
What else but love makes life worth living? Because, let's track this: "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love" (1 John 4:8) and "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). God IS love. And God (Jesus, God in the flesh) IS life. They aren't just connected. They are the same thing. You can't live without loving, and you can't love without living. That's what it means to truly be alive. Look at 1 John 3:14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." We WERE dead in our trespasses and sins before the cross. And then God--who is love, who is life--showed His LOVE for us by giving His LIFE for us, and to us. Because, in the grand scheme of things, at the end of the day, what else matters? Loving someone by giving them everything you have and everything you are. Laying your life down for them. And in that sacrifical act... truly living. Living for something greater than yourself. Experiencing the eternal, everlasting, abundant, Resurrection Life of God as HE lives His own life in you, and through you, and as you. Experiencing that resurrection... that passing from death unto life... every time the Word (love) is made flesh (charity). When you move in an act of love, that's when--and how-- you walk by faith. LIVE by faith. Faith in God. Which is faith in love. You can't live without loving, and you can't love without living. And, according to John 10:10, that's kind of the whole point: "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." People always want to make things into heaven or hell issues. And, I guess in a sense I can go down that road. Because hell was the place of the dead (before it was thrown into the lake of fire) and heaven on earth is truly living. Because really its a life or death issue. And not just any life. ABUNDANT life. And what makes abundant life abundant? What else but love! A lot of people don't seem to realize that the thief in John chapter 10 is not the devil. It is trying to enter the sheepfold any other way but the through the door. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber" (John 10:1). And that means that WE are the thief when we try to get something that we've already got. When we try to earn something that has been freely given. We rob ourselves from experiencing the gift of God because we've convinced ourselves that we don't have it, or we don't deserve it. We steal our gift from ourselves. We kill our own joy. He that loveth not his brother abides in death. Even though we have been given life. Because we have been given the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The Spirit of truth that testifies of our true identity by testifying of Jesus. The Spirit of truth that lets us know (and believe) that we are loved. The love receptor that equips and empowers us to receive and release the love of God. To give what we've got instead of trying to get something we think we haven't got. To be who we are instead of trying to be someone we're not. To truly live by letting God love us until that love overflows out of us. Naturally. Not TRYING to live, but living naturally. By--what else?--loving naturally!