He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is love.  C.S. Lewis

1John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. [10] This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. [11] Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. [14] And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. [15] If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. [16] And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. [17] In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. [18] There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  19 We love because he first loved us. [20] If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. [21] And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

I wonder how much true love actually exists in our world today.  What do I mean by true love.  I mean the kind of love that seeks nothing in return.  The kind of love that looks for no recognition or reward.  The kind of love that keeps on loving regardless of how “unappreciated”  or “unnoticed” it may feel.

Why do we love people?

q      For the most part we all have a certain criterion whether or not it is verbalized. For us, love is something that we withhold based upon a person meeting certain requirements that we have.  Our requirements are all different. Much of our disappointment in life is the failure of people to live up to our expectations.  Difficult to love if our pleasure is the criterion that determines whether or not we will love. 

In our relationships with others, often what passes for love is little more than a neat business transaction.  People are kind to us, so we repay them with equal consideration.  When they treat us unjustly, our negative response is really what they asked for. Everything is so balanced, so fair, so logical with this eye-for-an- eye and tooth-for-a-tooth kind of justice.  But Christian love never settles for only what's reasonable.  It insists on giving mercy as well as justice.  It breaks the chain of logical reactions.

General Robert E. Lee was asked what he thought of a fellow officer in the Confederate Army who had made some derogatory remarks about him.  Lee rated him as being very satisfactory. The person who asked the question seemed perplexed.

"General," he said, "I guess you don't know what he's been saying about you." 

"I know," answered Lee.  "But I was asked my opinion of him, not his opinion of me!"

q      Mainly it is a natural response to those who love us and demonstrate it.  As such there is nothing commendable when it comes to loving people that we have every reason to love.  Luke 6:32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' love those who love them. [33] And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' do that. [34] And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' lend to `sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. [35] But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. [36] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Matthew 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' [44] But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, [45] that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. [46] If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? [47] And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? [48] Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

q      When it is not a response it can be a form of manipulation – a trade or a contract.  There are times when we give solely to get.  We treat people in a certain manner in order to get a certain response from them.  It’s not actually that we love them so much as that we love ourselves and are willing to pay a certain price to get something that we want.

TEN  "ME ATTITUDES"

Every student is familiar with the Beatitudes  (Matthew 5) Too many have replaced them with what we might call "me-attitude"  For example:

1. To make me happy, never disagree with my opinions on anything.

2. To make me happy, talk about the faults of others, I have none.

3. To make me happy, always speak to me, even if I never speak to others.

4. To make me happy, always praise me, even if all I do is criticize others.

5. To make me happy, serve me. I don't have time to serve others.

6. To make me happy, always  love me, even though I display hatred for others.

7. To make me happy, let others do the work of the church, but let me share the credit.

8. To make me happy, let the preacher preach to all those "Bad" people and leave my  family and me alone.

9. To make me happy, let others continue to contribute Most of the money, but let me tell them how to spend it.

These kind of people need the love of Christ which will enable them to love

others, as well as themselves. (Romans 8: 9-11 & Ephesians 3: 16-19).

Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow and to love him as they love their cow-they love their cow for the milk and cheese and profit it makes them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God when they love him for their own advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have on your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost truth.

Meister Eckhart (C. 1260-C. 1327)

God needed no reason to love us.  Have you ever wondered why He chose to extend love to us?

q      We were created in His image spiritually designed from the start to live in fellowship with Him.

q      It is the nature of God to love, not to condemn

q      He is not willing that any one should perish.  If no one perishes by God’s will and still they perish then by whose will do they perish?

The heart that is truly filled with God’s love is the heart of a person who has an “initiative-taking” love.

We love him because He first loved us.  Do we really have an “initiative taking” love?  I think that the transformation of the human heart is to make it a selfless lover – to fill it with God, selfless love.

Ill. Solomon efforts to tell the true parent of the baby.  What did he know?  The life and well being of the child is always placed ahead of the parent’s well being and wants.  A true lover would rather lose a person in this life than to have that person hurt.

The ultimate test of self less love is to lay down one’s own life – to forsake everything.

It doesn’t matter what you can do – if you don’t have love

Greater love hath no man than this that he would lay down his life for a friend.

How can we become people who take the initiative in loving others?

q      Open your eyes to the little things.  See the neglected, the oppressed.  Jesus blessed a group of people that others missed.  Matthew 5:3-11  These people are often invisible to those of us who have enjoyed God’s blessings on our own lives.  Many simply do not see the needs of others.

q      Adopt a divine value system

God                          the greatest Giver

so loved                    the greatest motive

the world                   the greatest need

that He gave             the greatest act

His only Son              the greatest gift

that whosoever          the greatest invitation

believes in Him          the greatest opportunity

should not perish       the greatest deliverance

but have eternal life   the greatest joy

q      Understand the greatest need of a human heart is to know Jesus.  That was his mission – to seek and to save.  He chose us, he sought us in order to redeem us.  Our compassion for others must spring from the recognition of this universal need.  The greatest thing that can happen to someone is to know Jesus and therefore I cannot allow myself to put a stumbling block in front of another person that would impede their search or their progress toward Christ.

The greatest song of all is the song of the redeemed.

q      Commit yourself to become a people lifter.  Help people to feel bigger than they might have felt had you not encountered them.

The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace? The heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest.

   -- A. W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God.  Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no. 3.

In His Grip

The Lord loves the just and will not forsake His faithful ones.

--Psalm 37:28

It's the grip.

Not mine, but His.

Sometimes I forget

And latch on to something,

Or someone,

Forgetting my first love.

It's the grip.

Rock-strong, love-led.

Holding me when I want to run and hide,

Or disappear,

Forcing me to stand still.

It's the grip.

Pure grace, His ways.

Leading me through the angst and chaos,

Or cloudless sky,

Forging a path He has chosen.

It's the grip.

God's hand, on me.

Saving me,

And quieting my anxious mind,

Or fearful heart,

Forever held in His grip.  –TF

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the heav'ns of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry,

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretch'd from sky to sky.

Chaldee Ode

We call it mercy--it is God's forgiving love.

We call it providence--it is God's caring love.

We call it kindness--it is God's understanding love.

We call it Christ's passion and death--it is God's proven love.

We call it happiness--it is God's encouraging love.

We call it the will of God--it is God's unerring love.

We call it heaven--it is God's rewarding love.

We call it eternity--it is God's unending love.

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