Advent Love
Thinking and writing about God’s love is like emptying the ocean one thimble at a time. Impossible, but we must! NOTHING matters more.
Kids sing a playground song, First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage. The culture and the church mess up this order. But it remains true, first comes love.
Keep these four crucial love themes this advent season.
God’s love is eternal.
First, God is love (John 4). This means love is eternal. It’s the foundation of all his dealings with us.
God came to earth special delivery over 2000 Christmases ago, wrapped in love. We now know beyond any doubt what love is and does: Jesus, God in flesh appearing. Jesus, wrapped in love, wrapping nail-scarred hands around the whole world in love.
Now nothing is the same when it comes to love because Jesus.
What is love? Willing the good for another.
God’s love is constant. It never wanes. can’t increase or decrease. Whether we’re on best terms with him or not, his love never changes (1 Corinthians 13). By absorbing this agape love we become like him. This is what Jesus made possible for his apprentices.
God loves us for his own sake. He made our lives to run on love.
Next, we return the favor. We are capable of love because of the love we have received. The first commandment Jesus gave for our sake is to return love to God. Not in a sentimental kind of way, but by making love the ground of our being, the motivation for everything good we can do.
When you act on what Jesus taught, the way he loved, do it as a friend who is energized by love. When you bide in love, a friend with God, love will flow naturally from you. (John 15).
Love comes to us with a return address: God.
Third, we become love versions of God by extending love to others. Without loving our neighbors, loving God is will be stunted. Jesus said to his disciples: As the Father has sent me so send I you. Christ unveiled love in ways humanity never knew. Christ in us, when shown to others, reveals the incarnation of Christ anew every day. A cup of water in my name, he told us, is love on display. Christians harmonizing in love shine a warm spotlight on Christ.
Even our enemies need to taste our love and through us, God’s love.
Our love imitates the love of God.
Last, we receive the love of others, often with a dash of humility. We are made to run on love, given and received. We have the hardest time receiving love. Is it because we judge ourselves unworthy of love? Perhaps.
Loving others shows their worth. They don’t have to earn it. Not with God. Nor with us.
Love is not a zero sum game. God has stores of it still untapped. Because Jesus came, love will never run out. Receive!