It may sound like a review of the Rob Bell book “Love Wins” but I do not think it will come close to that. In fact without getting more than gossips about the content I think this may go in a totally different direction.
What I am thinking about as I go is God’s inimitable Breakthrough Love. Every person who has entered into a relationship with God knows the sensation that I am writing about – we experienced it in some degree when we decided for Him.
Paul the Apostle put it this way in Romans 5:8 “But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.” We never did anything to deserve Father’s love; in fact He bet Jesus life against us rejecting the Son of the Father
In His discussion with Nicodemus (John Chapter 3) Jesus used the words “everyone who believes” to describe those who had the ticket to life. All that was required was to believe Jesus for our life. He went on to say that God was unwilling that anyone should be condemned but that this would be the result of people deciding against Jesus. But this is the preface not the subject of this blog. For this blog is about our response to the Love of God.
You and I who know the love God has for mankind now have a new motivation for the way that we interact with people , especially those who are yet to learn about this love. Again Paul of Tarsus speaks eloquently to the subject when he writes this.
“We are ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize that one man died for everyone, which means that they all share in his death. He died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but only for him who died and was raised to life for their sake”. 2Cor 5 14-15
According to Paul our motivation for relating with others should be to shed God’s love abroad to those yet to be introduced to Jesus. We are to do this because of Father love in our lives that enable us to feel compassion towards others. This is a part of the Mission Mandate God has for our lives and it is unique to each of us.
There are no guarantees with this love outreach that Father calls us to. We each must seek His will for our lives and then respond to that will. For some of us it may mean no more than learning a new way to do business or working. For others He may purpose that they may need to make drastic changes in their life, location and outlook.
While for even others may need an additional quota of Father love to reach out to those who are outside the normal expectation. They may be filthy or coarse, they may not respond as one might expect but still they are not outside God’s love. It is the privilege of those called to these people to be Jesus to them by showing His love through the life they lead
God’s love “constrains” us, to use an unusual term, God does not force us to reach out to others. God’s love motivates us from the love that God puts within our heart. As one final comment from Apostle Paul this offering from the letter to the Romans.
“Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.” Romans 13:10 (NLT).
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