So Loved

 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

The Purple Lady

My favorite color is purple. I love it. I met a woman more than 20 years ago who loves purple as well, but she had a very different way of showing it than I do. In her office, where I met her, everything was either a shade of purple or it had purple in it. I mean EVERYTHING: filing cabinets, wall paper, various pieces of décor, her desk, and on and on. I had never seen so much purple in my life. It was like a giant eggplant threw-up in there. Then I spotted her, and – I kid you not – she was purple. Her blouse had purple flowers on it, her fingernail polish was purple, all of her make-up was purple, her eye-glasses had purple frames, and her hair was almost black with a completely purple sheen. When I left the building, I spotted her car in the parking lot. “How did you know it was her car, Tricia,” you ask. Well…it was purple.

There are various kinds of love, like my love for purple. The love you have for a dear friend is not the same as the love you have for your spouse or children. I could give a million examples, but you get the point. I want to explore beyond that; beyond our typical concept of love. Divine love is so much more and so few get a glimpse of it. Not because God won’t let you, but because you won’t let yourself.

Abiding Love

This has been on my heart for many years now. I know there’s a reason for that, and I feel like it’s time for me to share.

The most powerful force in all the universe isn’t gravity or some weapon of mass destruction created by man. It’s love.

Love.

We did not create love. It has always existed. Love is not bound by space or time. It does not end. Love makes absolutely no sense and we can’t really explain or accurately define it. Just be satisfied to say, “God is love”.

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 4:16

“Abides in love,” – look at that again. Read it again. ABIDE in love. Live there, people! Move in, make your bed, throw out a welcome mat at the door and live right there. Now, hold on just a minute, what happens when you live there? Live there for real…I’m not talking about just renting, leasing, squatting, or using it like it’s your own personal Airbnb while you’re on a little vacay from Satan. No, no! I’m talking about permanent status. 1 Love Lane is MY address. I LIVE here! Love is my home. I abide right here. 1 John says not only are we abiding in love, but we abide in God as well. We abide in Him, and He abides in us!

Oh, I hope somebody out there is yelling, “Amen!” Mmm, mmm, can I get an AMEN?

Oh y’all! You see what he’s telling us? It’s because of our love that He abides in us. We can love that way because of His love. Because we are so loved. Anybody confused right now, stop trying to figure it out. It’s not math. It’s not a riddle. It’s not a test. Just feel the love. Close your eyes. Don’t talk. Feel it.

We love because He first loved us.

1 John 4:19

Love Like That

Jesus commanded us to do many things that, at first, seem really hard to do – impossible even. He said to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31), and even love our enemies (Mark 5:44, Luke 6:35).

How do you feel about that? Can you do that? Are you doing that right now?

How about that neighbor of yours who never mows their lawn, or the one who won’t even look up when they come outside? What about the guy who borrows your stuff and either never brings it back or somehow it always gets broken? How about the lady who drinks too much, yells at her kids, and likes to get into loud arguments with her husband involving profanity late every Saturday night on their front porch?

Enemies are not just made in times of war, and you don’t even have to know them personally. They are people who don’t share your views/beliefs, people who seem to persecute/pick-on you, people who’ve brought harm/pain/suffering to you in some way, and people who just don’t like you for whatever reason.

Can you imagine asking God to forgive the people nailing you to a cross while they do it – the same people who’ve just spent many hours taking pleasure in mocking and torturing you?

Now, some people think we can’t actually overcome those kinds of obstacles. Jesus just meant for us to be good, and try as hard as we could. We can’t possibly do what is obviously impossible. That’s too hard.

To that, I say NAY!

With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Matthew 19:26

Transforming Love

• Why does the sun shine?
• Why do flowers bloom?
• What makes the wind blow?
• How does the Hummingbird know where to go in summer?
• What makes a baby take their first breath?
• Why does the Earth rotate?
• How come purple exists?
• Why did Jesus willingly die on the cross for us?

The answer to all these questions and so much more is because of God’s divine love.

God’s love transforms. When you accept Jesus as your personal savior, God’s love is poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit, (Romans 5:5). You are capable of so much more than most have even imagined. As you mature spiritually, you reach new levels of awareness and understanding. You open yourself up to a greater connection with God – a deeper relationship. His love starts to change you. You become more like Him. Sin becomes disgusting and repulsive to you, yet you can’t help but have compassion for those who seem lost in it. That develops into sorrow. The sin you see in the world, and your own, brings you sorrow. You love people you’ve just met – you can’t help yourself. Then you realize…you love EVERYBODY. An awareness arises that there’s something more, something beyond the love you already feel, something so powerful it’s difficult to describe. It feels like you just almost understand it; it’s almost within your grasp. And when you are here, you already know.

If I speak human or angelic tongues   but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Having free will means that a born-again Christian can choose to mess up the whole process of spiritual maturity. We have everything we need within us (2 Peter 1:3), but we must submit to His Lordship over our lives. We must die to self and seek to know Him. The more you know Him, the more you love Him. And if you love Him, you will trust and obey Him because you have learned He knows what’s best for you. You are so loved.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

John 14:21

The Fruit of Love is Love

Paul lists the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22. The very first fruit is love. He also tells us that among faith, hope, and love – the greatest is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). If you’re looking for a better understanding of what love is, well Paul sums it up for you:

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

You thinking about now, all the times and all the ways you’ve failed to fulfill this scripture?

Well, what are you going to do about it? I suggest start with some praying. God is good.

You can’t fake your way through this stuff. Huh-uh. You don’t get to just mark various things off a list each day and call it good. You might be able to fool your ole Great-Aunt Edith, but you ain’t fooling God. He knows your heart (1 Samuel 16:7). God accepts only what is real.

Let love be without hypocrisy.

Romans 12:9

Love Letter

The Bible is a love letter from God to us.

It tells us about God and how much He loves us.

We are so loved that God sent His only Son to redeem us through His death. Only a perfect sacrifice would do and bring an end to the imperfect atonement for sins that had to be done over and over. Jesus so loved His Father and us that He willingly became that sacrifice (John 15:13).

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 

Ephesians 2:4-5

Scripture is full of love.

Jesus, He is love. It just seeped from His skin while He was here. He is the embodiment of love.

You may be thinking the Bible is full of events that don’t seem very loving – even some characteristics of God that make you question what I’m talking about. You need to look through His eyes. Jesus turned over the tables and chairs of people at the temple who were selling doves and changing money, and He reprimanded them because their sin made Him heart sick (Matthew 21:12). It was love that was behind His actions. The temple was God’s house of prayer and the people had turned it into a den of thieves. How could they do this in God’s house? How could they be so blind and so offensive? Jesus loves the Father with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength. He told us to as well (Mark 12:30).

One of the last things Jesus did before he was arrested was issue a new command to His disciples.

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

John 13:34

It’s love my brothers and sisters. LOVE. That’s what sets us apart from the world – love.

When you let God’s divine love transform you and flow through you, you will be like the purple lady – only God will be your favorite color. He will be in everything you have, everything you do, and everything you are. You can’t hide it and you won’t want to.

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

Those who don’t know Jesus as their personal savior, are capable of love of course. They can even ponder its deeper meaning. Several years ago, I saw a movie and was intrigued with some of the dialogue because it hit on what I had been thinking about. One of the characters was talking about love and said:

Maybe it means something more - something we can't yet understand.  Maybe it's some evidence, some artifact of a higher dimension that we can't consciously perceive.

The problem with this statement is it leaves out God. Yes, love means something more, something most people can’t yet understand. Love is evidence of a higher dimension, and if you’re trying to figure it all out on your own, you’ll never consciously perceive it. God is the source of everlasting love, and that love molded the universe, parted the waters, and put the flutter in butterfly wings. That love watches over us, radiates from Heaven, and will preside over Judgment Day. We are SO loved.

Let all that you do be done in love.

1 Corinthians 16:14

Photo by Khadeeja Yasser on Unsplash