Is Your Love Extravagant?
Thinking on God?s love I remember a few verses of a song: ?Your love is extravagant; Your friendship, intimate.?
I got to thinking?is MY love extravagant? Do I love people the way God does? Do I love my enemies that way? My brothers and sisters in Christ (ALL of them)? My family? My neighbors? Do I love people simply because they are His children? Does my love go above and beyond the way the world loves or what is natural? Because it should if I am His.
?If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ?~Matthew 5:46-47
?Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.? ~1John 4:20-21
1 John gives many such tests to examine and measure ourselves by as Christians. Why? The purpose of testing ourselves is to prevent self deception. We are easily deceived about ourselves and our spiritual state apart from the Word of God. If we do not measure ourselves against the truth of the bible, we may well go on believing we are spiritually healthy when we are actually spirutally dead.
How about the 2nd verse: ?Your friendship, intimate? What kind of friend am I? Am I the kind of friend that only invites people into my life if they meet my standards of approval and make me comfortable? Do I only invite people to my home if it is spotless? Am I hospitable to ALL my brothers and sisters or only to those I prefer? Am I someone who is willing to listen as well as to speak? Am I guarded or pretentious in the way I present myself, my life and my struggles to others or am I transparent and open about my faults and failures as well as my strengths? God?s friendship is intimate. He wants our relationships with other Christians to be real and intimate as well. His children are to look like Him if we are to call ourselves a family.
?By this we may know that we are in him: 6whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.? ~1John 2:5b-6
I?ve been meditating on 2 verses as I think about this more in depth:
10?See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.?~Matthew 18:10
?1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.? ~1John 5:1
We cannot despise ANY of our brothers or sisters. When the angels see any child of God, they see His face! And an earmark of anyone who truly loves God is that they will love his other children as well.
These passages speak of God?s children as ?little ones?. Little one = children?what kind of person would hate a child? The worst kind. The most evil. Only the wicked and ungodly would hate and despise a child?yet when a destitute soul enters many a church in ragged clothing or poor in spirit or hopeless or full of fear or vices, are they not met with the pride of the modern day Pharasees who ignore him? Who exclude such a one from their inner circle? Who never dare to invite him into their homes or visit at theirs? But what does God?s Word say? What is the test of TRUE religion?
?Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.?~James 1:27
Little wonder this teaching in Matthew 18 is immediately followed by the proper way to discipline a rebellious child of God!
But God?s love isn?t like our love some may say. His is much greater?unconditional. I say??Shouldn?t it be?? If we really are his children, shouldn?t our love be looking more and more like His as we grow up? Our love MUST conform to His! We must learn to love people the way He loves them! Not because they deserve it. Not because they love us. Not because we have a lot in common or frequent the same recreational activities. NO! We are to love unconditionally because we are COMMANDED to!
?12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.?John 15:12
As the pastor said this morning: We sometimes mistake commands for options. Commands are to be obeyed, not debated as to their profit or valuability for ourselves!
Think of that brother or sister you never include. Think of the one you see every month or two slip in the back of the church dissheveled and depressed. How about the one you simply don?t like? When God?s angels see him/her, they see God Himself. People are hard to love, but God didn?t say ?Love those who make you comfortable? He said ?Love one another as I have loved you.? Let us take an interest in our brothers and sisters extravagantly offering God?s love and our own transparentcy working toward intimate, genuine familial relationships.
?This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God?s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. ?1John 3:10