Love is hemmed in Christ

What drives us to love? Is it a quality of our own, or a quality of the object of our affection?

Maybe it’s a perfect balanced harmony of both these things that move our emotions in the purest way. Maybe, it’s because of how we learned to love through the ones who loved us first. Sometimes, it can be hard to understand love at all when we have felt abandoned by God because of others’ actions, especially from people who profess being godly. It was that way for me for a long time. But you see, God’s love isn’t defined or hemmed in the actions of others. It’s not bound by circumstances. God’s love is quite unlike our own. Is it such a mystery that it feels foreign to us and even impossible?  But can we be capable of such a love on this side of eternity? We are told the second-greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Mark 12:29-31). Is this possible?

1 Samuel 18:1-4 (NASB)

Jonathan and David

18 Now it came about, when he had finished speaking to Saul, that [a]Jonathan committed himself to David, and Jonathan loved him as himself. 2 And Saul took him that day and did not let him return to his father’s house. 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his military gear, including his sword, his bow, and his belt.

Read that again… Jonathan loved David as himself. This was quite some time before the arrival of Christ to the world, and in this portion, we have a perfect example of loving in a God pleasing way. Despite Jonathan’s position and birthright (the king’s son), he stripped himself of everything that defined that status. David had just slayed the giant in the chapter before. He did it with God’s help. And God evidently was with David. Could this be what prompted Jonathan’s love and allegiance towards David? It certainly wasn’t his father’s example. Saul progressed to despise David, to the point of wanting to end him. I believe it had to do everything with God.

When we experience other’s indifference or even hatred, we tend to blame God for much of it. Love is the Fruit of the Spirit, as we read in Galatians 5. It is a direct product of our relationship with our Creator. So, if someone is being unkind or unloving towards us, it is very likely that they are struggling in this area. We are not perfect and aren’t exempt from this struggle.

          So, ask The Holy Spirit to direct you to the one who stripped himself of everything to be our bridge back to heaven, and the one who still draws near to humanity every day, Jesus. Without Him, all that we’ve been going on about is fruitless.  

Philippians 2:5-11 (NASB)

5 Have this attitude [e]in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be [f]grasped, 7 but [g]emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and [h]being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death [i]on a cross. 9 For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The song in my heart this morning: