Question: Why did Jesus come to earth?
A: Fast answer, well because He loved us.
Question: Why did Jesus love us?
A: He just does.
Question: But why, why does he love us?
A: Hmmmmm..... good question. Because we are cute? No. Because he was lonely? No. Because he had to? No. Because we can offer him something? No. Because we have anything to offer at all? No.......... I know, because he wants to show up Satan, by winning us back from the devil's clutches. No...... God has nothing to prove to Satan. Satan is a whooped bully, and he knows it....he is just going to go down, all the way down, kicking and screaming and taking as many blind men and women with him as he can.
Question: So, why does God love us?
A: Because he decided to. No more, no less. God decided to love mankind and offer Jesus as a payment for our sin which demands and justly deserves God's eternal anger. He just decided to. God expressed his love to us by letting us live if we turn to him and trust him. That is the simple message of John 3:16.
Question: Why is this important?
A: Because, we are to love the way God loves. By choice, by decision, by our will and not our willy nilly feelings. This is hard for me. I don't like to love others all the time. More often than not, honestly now, I am too busy loving myself to love anybody else. When I love the way God loves, I look at others and say, How can I love you in a way that is not merely loving myself? Do I love my church so I can keep my job? Or do I love them because I choose to be godly, and long for them to taste and see true, pure, unselfish love? Do I love my children so they will obey me and not embarrass me? Or do I love them to model the kind, committed, and yet firm and disciplining love of God? Do I love my wife so she will meet my perceived needs, or do I love her because it is right, and godly, and models what it looks like for Christ to love the Church....warts and all. (My wife doesn't have warts, but she could, and if she did, well....you get it...)
Friends, to be loved by God is to learn to love like God. I want that. I need that. And I have a long way to go. I want to love my family, my church, my friends, and my neighbors the way Gos loves...by choice....for their good...for His glory....for the love of God.
2 comments:
Great post Kevin.
I love the explanation of why God loves us; because that's who He is. Much of today's "Christian" music and evangelism methods present a god who is lonely and needs our affection, or who is just smitten over us. This I believe is supported by a misunderstanding of John 3:16; when we emphasize "so loved the world" incorrectly.
After understanding that even though I am a filthy sinner God showed favor to me anyway, it really opened my eyes to the true gospel. How shaky in our faith would we be if we thought the only reason God loved us was because of something He liked about us? We would be desperate to hold onto whatever that was so God wouldn't stop loving us.
This thought helps me be a better husband, a more patient servant at church, and much more gentle in my evangelism. We are all desperately hopeless, but God loves us anyway. I pray I will display that love to others more often.
"....I pray I will display that love to others more often...."
Good plan.
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