What does it mean to love someone else in the
Christian sense of the term? Love is the hallmark of
the Christian faith, yet almost none of us really
spend a lot of time thinking or talking about it. So
if this is something you have not really considered
fear not, because God's love, and hence Christian
love itself, is on full display right here in these
verses from Ephesians. To set the stage, the author
has been clear in the verses leading up to these
that humanity is rubbish, and I think any of us who
watch the news or have been to Wal-Mart on Black
Friday can agree with this sentiment. We are mostly
bad. And in God's eyes, we are certainly mostly bad.
So here we have a God who created us out of divine
love to live in perfect relationship with us, but
then watched us fall in a most miserable way and
then was faced with the prospect of deciding what to
do next. Did God give up? No. Did God walk away? No.
Did God punish and destroy? No. God continued to
love, and that love is manifest nowhere more clearly
than in Christ.
Through Christ all is made well. All those bad
things you have done...whoosh, wiped away. All those
sins you committed...gone. In fact, everything that
had previously separated you from God is overcome,
and you will be restored to God through Christ. Now
that is love; to look past all that your beloved has
done wrong, the myriad ways in which they have
failed you, and to still, still love them
abundantly. This is the type of love God has for us;
that nothing in life nor death can separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That, my
friends, is Christian love. It is unfailing,
undying, unrelenting. It is eternal, and it is
offered freely by God through grace. How about them
apples!
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Prayer: Holy God, thank you for loving me today. I am sorry I have
sinned against you and my neighbor, but I thank you for loving me
anyway. I am your devoted servant, and I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
[Phil Blackburn, First Presbyterian Church] |
