Love essential

This Sunday, I was sitting in church. The preacher was talking about the wide road to destruction and the narrow road to everlasting life. He urged us to take stock of our lives and to make sure that we are indeed on the narrow road leading to life. He was sure that there had to be at least some who thought that they were on the narrow road but who were actually on the wide road. Other people also spoke, some sharing a Word and some giving their testimonies.


As I sat looking at the congregation and all those speaking, it struck me that we are all on a mission to convert each other. Probably secure to various measures in the fact that we ourselves must be on the narrow road to life, we set out to convince the others around us of their short comings which to us are showing of them knowingly or unknowingly being on the wide road to destruction. In this and in the love of the Lord we are very sincere.


Yet, as I considered all of us, I was aware of the irony in that each one of us there was sure of our being on the right road and yet we were at the same time perhaps ignorant of our own trespasses against each other. I knew the hurts, wounds and harm many of us in church on Sunday have caused our fellow Christians in church and non-Christians outside the church, whether intentionally or unintentionally. In this I don't think any of us there were without guilt.  Sincere in our love for Christ, sincere to save each other yet at the same time hurtful to each other.


And I thought, what a wretched people we are. This is the very reason many choose to withdraw from church and live out their love for God away from the hurtfulness of others. I have myself experienced the urge to flee.


But this is not God's will, not the answer and I know that very well.


So, like Paul, I asked the question - WHO WOULD SAVE A WRETCHED PEOPLE LIKE US?


And again, his answer was still the only one - "Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:25)


The only hope, through Christ, is love.


Not our carnal love for each other, but the love which is a fruit of the Spirit of God. The ONLY thing that can bind us together in spite of our hurtfulness, in spite of our failures, in spite of our ignorance and in spite of our sins is love for one another for "love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). It does not excuse sin, it does not approve of sin. Rather, it bears with one another so that Proverbs 19:11 becomes true in our lives - "A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offence."


Jesus said, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." (John 15:12)


God the Father and Jesus Christ who are One, loved an unlovable people. A people covered and drowned in sin. He loved them to the point of giving His life so that they may have life and life in Him. Now His command is for us to love as He has loved.


"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Gal 5:6)


"If I ... have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." (1 Cor 13:1)


"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor 13:13)


"This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another." (1 John 3:11)


"Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us." (1 John 3:21-23)


Walking out of church on Sunday I had only one sure knowledge...that we need the grace and mercy of God's love and that we should seek to love with the love that can only come from God, through the love of Christ and the indwelling of His Spirit.


God is love.
We love because he first loved us.



Until next week,
God bless!