God's Love Life - by Joel Hempel God has a love life? Well, it’s not what we might think of when we hear that phrase. In one sense, God’s love is incomprehensible. We can’t begin to wrap our minds around God loving God as in the intra-relational love within the Trinity between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And yet, Jesus talked about it with the Father in a matter-of- fact manner, as if to say to us, The love the Father. Spirit and I share is just who we are and what we do.1 And, we want to share it with you. What? Yes! God’s love, his perfect, divine love, Jesus wants us not only to experience it but also to be at home with it as Jesus is. Jesus prays that we, the church, may be perfectly one so that the world may know that you [Father] sent me and loved them even as you have loved me. . . I made known to them [those of us who are disciples of Jesus] your [the Father’s] name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.2 Reading this passage from Jesus’ parting message to his disciples may give the impression that the love he speaks of is something we will experience only in heaven. So, be patient and look forward to the great transition from this life to the next. Well, that transition will happen, and it will be wonderful. But that’s not what Jesus is saying. Rather, Jesus is saying he is going to the cross to bear our punishment so that we can enjoy and celebrate the Father’s love NOW! God’s love not only saves us for eternity,3 but also for HERE. Think about it: Christ Jesus and God’s love are within us! I know that is incomprehensible. But God has built into humanity’s DNA ways of understanding God’s love. For example, a mother’s love for her child is not incomprehensible. We know a mother’s love gets inside her child. And every time we see a mother’s unconditional love for her child depicted in a movie, it moves many of us to tears, because it is a beautiful thing. It is equally beautiful to see a child’s love for his mother returned to her through kind, sacrificial gestures. Similarly, Christians who love God through worship, live biblically-directed transformed lives, and sacrificially love not only each other but also neighbors and strangers, catch the attention of onlookers because it is a beautiful thing. Such loving is beautiful because it is God’s love at work within us, reaching out to others through us. 1. 1 John 4:8,16,19 2. John 17:23,26 3. John 3:16-17 |
