Living Loved

Love is frequently viewed as something that is earned – do well, respond to me in the right way and I will love you. Frequently that is pushed over onto God, and so people both non-Christian and Christian ending up trying to earn the love of God.

But that’s not how the Bible tells it. It starts with God being love itself – God doesn’t have love as a commodity, he IS love, it’s very embodiment, John says, “God is love.” Love doesn’t exist in isolation, but community, and scripture teaches that God is a loving community of Being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit who have lived in and shared love from all eternity.

Love leads to creativity.

God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created the world then made humanity in their image to live in and share the same kind of love.

When that love was broken through the desire to serve self, to put me first, by wanting to be like God, we were cut off from love.

Ever since our experience of love has fallen way short of the love we were originally created for.

But God continued to love.

And in his love he came in the likeness of human flesh and loved the world and in that love gave himself for it by paying the price for all our sin, our rebellion, on the cross.

That love calls us and draws us to Himself and saves us.

That love is given to us – we don’t earn it, can’t earn it, never will. It is the most staggering love this world has ever known.

That love is spoken to us, and affirmed over and over again in the Word.

That love is also shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

As Paul says, “I pray that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints the breadth, the length, the depth and the height of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Eph. 3:17-19.

Love is not something we experience on our own, but together, as we discover the amazing way he loves us, and goes on loving us.

Love enables us to live, to live fully, unreservedly. We are not trying to earn a relationship, we have one.

The gospel, the good news is all about how we can once again live loved, even as imperfect people.

And living loved leads to transformation, not to earn love, but because of the way love itself works.