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Ever wonder about when Jesus says we are supposed to love our enemies? (Matthew 5:44)
It sounds good in theory, but I don’t know that I could count very many people I know who have actually managed it. And when we do try to love our enemies (or even love those who hurt us just a little bit), it is usually a bitter love – the right action perhaps, but full of any emotion but love.
To reconcile this hypocrisy in our behavior with what we see Scripture, we intellectualize love so that it is reduced to only being a decision. “It doesn’t matter how you feel,” says the logic, “so long as you do what is right.” Somehow, we swallow such statements without even realizing how absurd they are.
Imagine a husband and wife who base their marriage on correct behavior without ever being concerned for the emotional state of their relationship. That’s silly! It is equally silly to imagine loving others in an antiseptic, unemotional way and still calling it love.
Here is what we have missed: Simple human love cannot accomplish what is only meant to be done by divine love.
You see, our love is limited, conditional and focused in the wrong direction. We try to love others out of our own emotional emptiness. The result is that we give love freely to those who love us back, but we struggle at loving the unlovable. The unlovable are unlovable because we rely on the way others treat us to give us the ability to love them. It is a needy, self-focused love.
The alternative that Jesus offers us, however, is to be able to pour out on others the same kind of love that He has for us. How? By experiencing His love for us first. Then, when we are filled with the love of the Father, we are able to love others regardless of how they treat us. Our love is no longer based on their behavior, but on the love of God that has been poured into us.
Therefore, the most import thing we can do as Christians each day is to allow ourselves to be loved by God – to set aside our guilt, shame, performance issues, rejection garbage and whatever else keeps us from simply letting God love us. As we do that, two amazing things will happen.
First, we will discover that god really does love us in a deeply passionate and emotional way.
Second, we will discover ourselves loving others freely and unconditionally because we have no need to be loved in return.
It is in this place of love that we enter into the abundant life Jesus has promised us.
letting ourselves be loved by God in a deeply passionate and emotional way ...
ReplyDeleteeach day, even.
can you unpack that some,please? thank you!
Unpacking. Hmmm. socks, toiletries, let's see, what else is in here? :-)
ReplyDeleteI suppose at the bottom of the suitcase is the concept that we can experience the presence of God in a real and tangible way on a regular basis (James 4:8; John 15:1-5).
Secondly, since God is love (1 John 4:16), when we do experience His presence, we will experience being loved by Him.
This love of God is full of emotion. Therefore, when we experience the presence of God, we can also know that we are deeply loved by God because we can feel His love for us in a tangible way.
It is after being filled with His love that we are able to love others (1 John 4:19) and live the abundant life.
OK. That may not be fully unpacked, so ask more questions if you'd like to!
How can we feel his love in a tangible way?
ReplyDeleteThe key is experiencing the presence of God. That is what my book, Undone: The Why and How of Being in the Presence of God, is all about. The space allowed for comments limits how much I can write here. So I will post an exerpt from my latest book, The Gospel of Freedom, that may help. Let me know if you have more questions or if there is more that I can do for you.
ReplyDelete