THE LOVE OF CHRIST
There are many religionists who seem to get tired of hearing all this talk about love. They want to talk about law, rules, ways to control other people, and things to hate, along with “justifiable in their own imaginations” reasons why. Anyone who has read the Bible honestly knows the preeminent place that love has in it. They will never tire of hearing about it or complain that it is occupying too much of our attention.
Growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ is growing in love—love for God and love for others. But this happens by understanding how much he loves us. Our love for him is a response to the fact that he loved us first (1 John 4:19). Your problem is not that you don’t love Christ enough. It is that you do not realize how much Christ loves you. By meditating on his love for you, your love for him grows naturally.
“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1 ). You are as important to him as those twelve men whom he chose as his apostles. And the love he had for them is unfathomable. He loved them despite the fact that they were slow in understanding and made tremendous mistakes. And the same is true of you. He loves you in spite of your sins and weaknesses. In spite of your problems. Jesus loved the apostles to the end and he will love you to the end.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rom. 8:35). You are tied to the love of Christ because he tied you to it. He has poured out his love upon us. Nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus because he loves us to the end. His love does not depend on us or how well we perform in living our lives. It is the result of who he is. Nothing will change your life like realizing the power of the love Christ has for you.
“For the love of Christ controls us…” (2 Cor. 5:14). Paul had spent much time thinking about the love of Jesus. He was motivated by how much Christ had done for him and what Christ thought of him. This is the reason that he spent his life seeking to do those things that are pleasing to God. He made it his goal to be well-pleasing to the Lord. He considered himself crucified with Christ and was living by the love Christ had for him. This is true love. This is true life.
How could your life not be changed by knowing that Jesus, the creator and sustainer of the world, loved you enough to die for you? How could that not control your life? “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16). If you want to know what love is, then look at the love of Jesus. Meditate upon it. Accept his love. Let his love flow through you to others and let it be the guiding force that motivates everything that you do.
Dewayne Dunaway
