The Measure of Love

Psalm 51:10-12                    Philippians 2:5-11                                        John 15:9-17

The Measure of Love

A man who had been the superintendent of a city rescue mission for forty years was once asked why he had spent his life caring for dirty, unkempt, profane, ungrateful, drunken derelicts for a salary slightly above minimum wage. “All I’m doing,” he replied, “is giving back to others a little of the love God has shown to me.”

This man had learned to follow the example set for us by both the Father and the Son. The love experienced within the Godhead overflows into various expressions of love toward his creation. The best-known verse in the Bible speaks of a love which no man has ever been able to fully comprehend: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  

John expanded on this in his first Epistle, chapter 4:9-11: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  And then he applied this exemplary love to us: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

God’s love is a love that is based on a sovereign decision to love…it is not a love based on the object of that love. As we saw last week, God loves because he loves…he loves because he is the essence of love. In this sense, God’s love is unconditional. He loves simply because he loves. But the most marvellous aspect of this love is that it never gives up on us despite our faults and failures. God loved us before we loved him.

Jesus’ love for his Body, the Church, was demonstrated in his willing sacrifice of himself for us. Paul links this kind of love with the love of a husband for his wife in Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the Church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish.” 

According to this verse, the aim of the love of Jesus is to bring us from imperfection to perfection, but the important thing to remember here is that he loved us before this process began as well as throughout the process until he brings it to completion (See Philippians 1:6). 

But herein lies our biggest challenge. We are to love as Jesus loves. In the Gospels, Jesus is presented as someone who humbly submitted himself to the will of the Father. Jesus took on the form of a human being to reveal to us how we were intended to live as creatures created by the Creator. As Paul said in Philippians 2:8, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” So then, it should not come as a surprise to us when Jesus links abiding in him with keeping his commandments…Jesus remained in his Father’s love by keeping or by fulfilling the law. 

So, even though God’s love is unconditional in the sense that his love for us is not merited, once we are his people our love for him demands obedience. Like with the suzerainty treaties of the Ancient Near East that we looked at last week, the benevolence and the blessing of the superior power is contingent upon the fulfilment of the covenant stipulations. Our response to the unmerited, and therefore unconditional, love of God is a response that is defined by the will of God as revealed in his Word. As such, our love for God will always be based on a deliberate choice on our part to do what he commands. If we are to be honest when we call him Lord, we must do what he tells us to do. “If you keep my commandments,” Jesus said, “you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”

Interestingly, the result of obedience to the Word is joy…a joy which is both permanent and complete. However, as David’s plea in Psalm 51:12 reminds us, this joy can only be experienced by those who are obedient to the will of God. This joy cannot be gained or maintained by favourable circumstances or by the multiplication of material possessions because these things are temporary and liable to unpredictable change. No, our joy must be founded on firmer stuff if it is to endure whatever comes our way.

Have you ever noticed how many times the word “joy” is used in passages related to persecution and trials? You see, true joy is not to be confused with a fleeting superficial happiness…happiness fades when we lose our job or when our holiday ends or when our health deteriorates. True joy is a deep knowledge of being at peace with God’s original intention for creation. Our joy is the product of our love…a love defined by the character of the God we love and by the choice we make to love him more than the things nonbelievers claim to be essential. For this reason, our joy and our love ought to find expression in giving not taking…in humility not pride…in bearing all things, believing all things, hoping in all things, and enduring all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). This kind of love will never fail because it mirrors the love of Jesus.

But perhaps the most remarkable thing in this passage is that, unlike the superior secular powers of the Ancient Near East, Jesus elevates the relationship he enjoys with his followers to that of a friendship. This remarkable statement of Jesus is couched in the language of common brotherhood rather than in the language of servitude. Sadly, I think that in some cases the word “friend” has been diminished and diluted in its value and reduced to something more akin to an acquaintance. In the biblical sense, the word “friend” is based on an intimate commitment one to another that is based on an inviolable trust. 

As used here by Jesus, the word “friend” signifies a relationship of privilege enjoyed between the Creator and his created beings that transcends what is considered normal or general. In the Old Testament, men like Abraham, Moses, and David were considered friends of God because he spoke to them face to face, as it were, sharing with them his will and plans directly rather than by means of mediation. In this sense, we too are considered “friends” in that God speaks to us directly through his Word by the illuminating work of his Holy Spirit who resides within us as believers. God has revealed to us everything necessary for a deep and meaningful relationship with himself because he regards us as friends.

This revelation of himself in and through his Word is based on his choice and his choice alone. We must not forget that without the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, unregenerate human beings are not able to comprehend the thoughts of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). It is God who seeks us out and it is God who chooses us, not we who seek him or choose him. As Paul quoted from Psalm 14 in Romans 3:10-12: “"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." 

As such, the initial choice as well as the appointment comes by divine decree. However, this does not mean that we have no will of our own…rather it means that our response is based on his decision. If Jesus had not chosen us, we would not have chosen him. This is where so-called “decision theology”, so prevalent in the evangelical church, falls apart. We love him because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). We decided because he decided. The covenant and the signs of the covenant are based on his decision, not ours. 

But notice what we have been chosen for and appointed to…to go and bear abundant fruit…fruit that should have an eternal impact in that its aim is to glorify the Father. As Jesus came to glorify the Father with every breath and every step both in life and in death, so we too must live to reveal the one we claim to serve. The fruit produced by the Spirit as outlined in Galatians 5:22-23 is a result of a process of individual sanctification, but the display of this fruit is not for our benefit, but rather for the benefit of all who encounter us. 

As others observe a lifestyle that reflects the character of our Creator, they witness the living testimony of what only God can do in a person submitted to his will as expressed in his Word. Whether they are repelled or attracted is not the point…rather the point is that the character of God has been displayed through the lives of his children ultimately bringing him glory.

Obviously, because the fruit is produced by the vines abiding in the vineyard, it too abides. Faith, hope, and love, Paul tells us, remain…the greatest of which is love. The vines that abide in the vineyard are known by the fruit the gardener cultivates. As those who are in Jesus, we are defined by one word that embraces all that God is…and that word is love. God is love, and consequently those who love as he loves, demonstrate that they have been born of God and that they know God (1 John 4:7-12). 

Love defines us as believers. The superintendent of the city rescue mission understood this. His whole life was focused on giving back to others a little of the love God had shown him. The love of God is sacrificial, and its goal is the benefit of the recipient. If we claim to love God, our love ought to be the same as his. If we say we love God and yet hate our brethren, we are pretenders…we are liars…because the love of God is based on keeping his commandments…and his commandment is that we love one another in the same way that he loves us.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2024