The God of Love, the Love of God

Matthew 5, 43. You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

For he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect. One of our frequent complaints as believers is that we can't seem to hold on to our vision of God amid all the distractions of ordinary daily life.

We get the vision, but to hold on to this thing, amid car problems, the kids getting sick, unpaid bills, tension at home, tension on the job, seems almost impossible. Now why can't we take the vision we get up on the mountaintop and bring it down with us into the valley of day in and day out living and keep it? Is it because this world is so hard that the vision can't survive? Or is it that we really have the wrong vision in the first place? All too often the reason is that we have a vision of God's love which is simply too synthetic and too sanitary to survive the realities of day in and day out living in this world. For instance, if I go up on the mountaintop and I get a vision of a loving God surrounded by angels, streets of gold, fountains, flowers, sunshine, and then I come down into the valley where I don't see any angels and the streets aren't paved with gold and smoke and storm clouds block the sun most of the time.

Everybody's mad at everybody else all the time. I'm bound to become confused and say, now where is God? But if I go up on the mountain and receive a vision of a God who pours out his life for sinners who visits the fatherless and the widows in their affliction who suffers with all who suffer then when I come down into the valley my vision fits the way things are. I see suffering and I see God right there in the middle of it.

And then I keep that vision of God alive by loving him with all my heart and loving those around me the same way he loves me. One of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another and seeing that he answered them well asked him, which commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, the first is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no other commandment greater than these. Now when we get to the end of the line the kingdom of God will for sure contain visible angels fountains, flowers, streaks of gold, endless daylight. In fact there is a heaven at the deep center of all existence where all these duties are even now to be seen.

But on this planet at this time the only possible way the kingdom of God can manifest God's nature is to draw near in self-giving, suffering love to sickness, pain, death, injustice, war, lies, lust, greed, hatred, a love that suffers and atones and heals. Now if we're going to be part of this kingdom then we have to see by faith the God who is this way and love Him right down in the middle of this mess where He is and begin then to love the people around us the way He does. The reason we keep losing our vision of God is because we have not yet, most of us or really all of us to a large degree we have not yet allowed ourselves to be inspired with a vision of suffering love of a God who hangs on a cross and the only God, the only vision of God that's going to survive this world the way it is with all its anguish and pain and absurdity is the vision of a God who hangs on a cross.

People keep saying, why do you keep talking about the cross, the cross, the cross? Why can't we see a vision of Jesus glorified? Didn't He take Peter, James and John up on a mountain apart? Wasn't He transfigured before them so that His face shone as the sun and His raiment became white as the light? Aren't we going to see Him like that one day? True. But even at the transfiguration, remember the conversation between Jesus, Moses and Elijah was concerning His departure, His death which He was soon to accomplish at Jerusalem. The first words that Jesus spoke to His disciples after the transfiguration were tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.

He's going to suffer. Let this sink into your ears. Get down into your hearts, He was saying to them.

The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they're going to kill Him. Now for us to be able to really get hold of a vision of God that's true to reality and be able to hang on to that vision in the midst of our struggle day in and day out over the obstacles of daily life we have to come down low enough ourselves that we begin to appreciate that the glory of God is suffering love. Love that pours itself out in death.

And that to love this God is to love our neighbor in the way He does. So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in Him.

In this is love perfected with us that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because as He is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love because He first loved us.

If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him that he who loves God should love his brother also.

Now nobody said that to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and to love our neighbor as ourself is going to be easy. Difficult as it is, impossible as it is, Jesus is calling us to a love for God which is so pure and so holy and so perfect and so consuming that we begin then to love the people around us and particularly our enemy the way God does. You have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sends his reign on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love those who love you what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you salute only your brethren the good Christian brethren what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Jesus is speaking these words to us and he is waiting for us to take them seriously enough that instead of forever protesting them and excusing ourselves in this way and that we rather come to him and confess Lord I just do not have that kind of love in me but I am willing to be made willing I will go out and do it if you give me the power Lord then he begins to give it to us and the power to love the way Jesus calls us to love is found in three places the power to love our neighbor our enemy our persecutor is found first of all in Calvary and finally in Jesus death by this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren when I am having trouble loving the place to go is to Calvary and to hold myself still there and fix my attention there until I begin to see that the one who hangs on that cross is God dying and suffering for me and as I really begin to see that my heart of stone melts once again into a heart of flesh by this we know love that he laid down his life for us we love because he first loved us by pouring himself out for us the second place where we receive the power to love our neighbor our enemy our persecutor is the gift of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us more than that we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us now when the love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit it doesn't just lie there and stagnate nor does it only squeak out of us in little verbal utterances whatever kind they are if the tongues and the prophecy which are indeed gifts from God if the discerning of spirits which are gifts from God healings, miracles and signs are flowing from us without love what good is it? that's what Paul says the main issue of the Spirit moving in us has to be love the fruit of the Spirit the outflow of the Spirit is love at the top of the list of the marvelous beautiful eternal things the Spirit does in us works through us the first thing is love and the Holy Spirit who is in our midst now eliminating the distance in time between earth and heaven for us speaks to our hearts even now in the voice of a gentle stillness as he spoke to Elijah and as he spoke to Timothy stir up the gift that I've already given you you who have me for I've not come to you with a spirit of fear but of love power a sound mind so that you can go out and do the Father's will the final place where we receive the power to love our neighbor our enemy and our persecutor is in our Lord's broken body which he gives us to eat and in his shed blood which he gives us to drink Jesus did not institute this meal merely as a ritual he instituted it for our nourishment body, soul, and spirit for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way also the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes as we eat the bread and drink the cup we proclaim the Lord's death by becoming broken bread and poured out wine for those around us in this food is strength to begin to pour ourselves out in love you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes his sons arise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust for if you love those who love you what reward have you do not even the tax collectors do the same and if you salute only your brethren what more are you doing than others do not even the Gentiles do the same you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect now there is no way that we can water down those words of Jesus all we can do is run to him in our weakness and ask him again to give us the power to live with him he will if we will open our hearts to him and to each other Jesus will fill them with his love as we eat his flesh and drink his blood again let's just take some time in silence and I'll break the silence and start the prayer okay let's wait a moment Lord we're just asking that you give to us all of us here the gift of repentance help us to turn away from ourselves and from our excuses and throw ourselves at your feet and open our hearts to receive your mercy today Lord God surely if the world out there could see your love in our living this place would be so full we couldn't even hang it from the ceiling and our homes would be so bright and healing would visit everybody who comes to visit us and life would flow everywhere we go oh God help us in this to become what you're calling us to be and deliver us this day from in any way weakening or distorting what you're commanding of us in your mercy