The four Sundays of Advent are: HOPE, PEACE, JOY & LOVE. Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent and the day to celebrate LOVE.
John 3:16 is a verse many people can quote - even if they are not Christians. It is even on roadside billboards and ballgame placards. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." the next verse is equally important: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." [ESV]
God loved so he gave. At Christmas we also give gifts to others to demonstrate our love. We reflect just a smidgeon of God's goodwill in doing so - but it is only a trace, for we cannot save anyone. But our giving just might be a catalyst for others to 'hear' that God is love.
Hundreds of books have been written about love and it is the theme of many songs. There are many facets of love, but God's love is agape love - a love so extreme that we cannot even begin to fathom it, let alone mimic it. However, we can embrace it - and in so doing, experience God's loving forgiveness through the power of the Holy Spirit by what Jesus (God incarnate) did for us on the cross. There is no greater love.
An old Christian song states, "There is no greater love than that of Christ above, that made him come to earth, become a man, and by his death provide redemption's plan. There is no greater love, that's why I'm singing of God's love so rich and free, revealed at Calvary. There is no greater love."
There is an old secular song that says, "What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of." It's true. Love gives instead of takes. Love covers a multitude of sins, and forgives even when the other person doesn't ask and forgiveness is not deserved. Love pours out over and over - and for the one who loves, the capacity to love just grows. I believe that degree of loving cannot be done in our own power, but only through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.
Love is an action verb. It changes who we are, and makes us more like Jesus.
1 Corinthians 13 is often read at weddings - but is a good reminder for all of us every day:
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
No comments:
Post a Comment