Diving in Love

"We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19

The culture around us defines love as something that just happens to us. We "fall in love." We are "smitten." We talk as if ,when we love someone, we are helpless to stop it; but if we aren't in love, we can't make it happen. Our culture is filled with the fracturing of friendships, families, churches and nations because our "love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears." (Hosea 6:4) A modern proverb says, "Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate." and it is plain to see that feelings of love can change in a moment, while enmity and bitterness endure for generations. 

That is not the love which the bible teaches. God's Word commands love - "Love your Neighbour" (Leviticus 9:18), Love the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 6:5) and even "Love your enemy" (Matthew 5:44). Jesus taught,

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Everyone love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Everyone does that." (Luke 6:32–33)

The Love which God counts as meaningful is a choice. God chose to create us, and has loved us through thick and thin, choosing to remain constant in His love even when our actions and attitudes have made him angry. 

 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. (Deuteronomy 7:9)

God describes his love as a 'Covenant,' which means his love is not dependent on a feeling, but is a vow, a promise kept by someone whose Word is true and will never pass away.  Think about 1,000 generations: In the Scriptures a generation is counted as forty years (like the forty years in the wilderness, where Israel wandered until a rebellious generation had passed away.) It has been slightly over 4,000 years since Abraham, only 100 generations. If we take this as a mathematical idea, God's love for Abraham's descendants has another 36,000 years on the warranty. Even Noah, according to scripture, lived only about 4,500 years ago. Noah "was a righteous man" (Genesis 6:9) which means God accepted him as one who loved God and obeyed his commandments (not perfectly by our standards, but God calls him righteous). By the logic of Scripture, everyone, as descendants of Noah, can count on God loving them for the next 35,500 years! Even if no one in your bloodline since has loved him! Of course I don't think that God intends that we should interpret the thousand generations as putting a limit on his love. It is declared in this way to point to the magnitude and steadfastness of his eternal love.

God has chosen to love. He looks at us, made to be in his image, and despite seeing us hating and hurting, despite our selfishness and wavering compassion He loves us enough to rescue us from our fallen state. 

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son (Romans 5:10) 
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

It's great news that God chooses to love according to his purpose and promise. He didn't "fall in love" so he won't "fall out of love."

When God calls us to love, it is to the kind of love that he has - to choose love. Often this is in opposition to feelings and to the direction circumstances are pushing us.  He does not call us to fall but to dive into love. In Matthew 5:44, where Jesus says, "Love your enemies" he adds, "and pray for those who persecute you." How can I love my enemy? Can I change my feelings or pretend to feel something I don't? "No," Jesus says, "do good to them and for them." In the Good Samaritan story, the neighbour that we care for is the person that we love. Samaritans and Jews had a long litany of complaints and anger against each other, but the one who did what was good for the other person fulfilled the command. 

We dive into love when we forgive those who sin against us: "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us." (Luke 11:4) Forgiveness may preserve love when hurt has changed our feelings, or it may establish love where only enmity had existed before. It is a choice to forgive.

We dive into love when we swallow pride, listen to the other side, and look for ways to reconcile. It's not being walked all over like a doormat, when someone you love is being careless, you can be 'Caring Enough to Confront' (the book by David Augsburger is a great primer in loving correction). 

We dive into love when we seek God in Scripture, when we turn to Jesus in prayer, and when we listen for the whisper of the Holy Spirit in the midst of a chaotic season of life. We cultivate love for the one who loves us. When you discover how much Jesus has done for you, you may feel attracted to Him: you have fallen in love. That's great. It makes it easy to choose to follow him. Yet even this feeling can change with the weather. From that beginning, which was generated by God's love for you, you will develop a steadfast covenant love as you walk with God, abiding in him. As you deliberately remain in his love, your love will become like his - the choice to love like he loves will become increasingly joyous  and natural for you.

Your love then is action you choose, an action that  happens to the one you love.

It is no secret that God dove into love:

(Jesus Christ) made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, (Philippians 2:7–9). 

"He came from heaven to Earth, to show the Way; from the Earth to the cross, our debt to pay; from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord, we lift your name on high" (Rick Doyle Founds)

What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe. Ephesians 4:9–10

God chose to love us and came to save us from lovelessness. His love has chosen to forgive our faults, as he offers to restore us to godliness, and heal our broken spirit. He chose even to die at the hands of sinful people rather than retaliate against their hatred. After rising from the grave he chased down those who had abandoned, denied and condemned him, not to condemn them but to offer salvation to them. 

Anyone, no matter what their history, is invited to receive God by accepting Jesus' invitation to be forgiven loved and restored. God is love, Choose Him, dive into love!