Love? {The Video is a song-pls listen at end of entry.}

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Hey Guys.

How you doing? I am good and finally have another encouragement email. Sheesh! Sorry it took so long, but here it is…

So I was watching this movie the other day, “Across the Universe”. It’s a musical to all old Beatles music. In the final scene the two main actors romantically sing to each other from the roof tops, “All You Need is Love”, a song written in the heart of the sixties “Make love not war” movement. It is a very true statement, thanks John. Great lyrics, great words, but words without proper definitions can lead one to some pretty treacherous places. Let’s take a look at this word that we all know, that we all wonder about, all wish for, all try to understand and all do need.



Anyway in the next few days I came across this portion of scripture, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”(2 Corinthians. 13:4-8a). You know it, yeah pretty popular hey?

Now as Christians, who are taught, by Jesus, that the two greatest commandments are to “Love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor”, we should know the definition of love pretty darn well, right? Not only should we know the definition but we should be living the definition too, “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:23-24 underline mine), thanks James. Love should be the defining characteristic of our relationships, demeanor, actions, driving, rugby watching, surfing, and life.

I happened also to notice that this definition of love, in 1st Corinthians, is made up of well…more words…to which we think we know the definitions. Let’s take a minute and check out what some of these words really mean.

First word, patient: “enduring provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain, etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like.” (dictionary.com). A synonym commonly used in some translations of scripture, is longsuffering. I like that word, long-suffering.

Let’s try another word, kind: “Showing tenderness or goodness; disposed to do good and confer happiness; averse to hurting or paining; good hearted; gracious.” (Eastonsbibledictionary.com). Synonyms are tender, compassionate.

Rude: “discourteous or impolite, rough, harsh, or ungentle.”( dictionary.com as with the rest of the definitions). “Not rude”…So not “discourteous or impolite, rough, harsh, or ungentle.”

Next I want to look at a particularly small word: “no” as in “it keeps no record of wrongs.” Means…wait for it, “not in any degree or manner; not at all”. Now when reading the verse knowing the definition it sounds something like this, “it keeps, not in any degree or manner, any record of wrongs.” Wowskie! That is no record at all, not for a few days, not for a few hours, in fact not even for a few seconds. We should be quick to forgive never holding onto unforgiveness, never taking score. You forgiving others is what you need to pay attention to first. Let us not forget the parable of the unmerciful servant when the King (who represents God in this case) says to the unmerciful servant, “'I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'”(Matt. 18:32-33).

Here’s a word used fairly often in this verse, and which, for myself, I am a little hesitant to check the definition: always. Here it goes, I hope you are ready…“every time; on every occasion; without exception, all the time; continuously; uninterruptedly, forever, in any event; at any time.” Slot that definition into, “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” How about we throw in just a few: “continuously protects, forever trusts, all the time hopes, in any event perseveres.”

I know we are doing a lot of defining right now but please hold on; just two more words and I’ll get to my point!

Protects… “To keep from being damaged, attacked, stolen, or injured; to defend or guard from loss, annoyance, insult, etc.”

Perseveres equals: “to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly, to bolster, sustain, or uphold.”

So you are thinking, “thanks for the English lesson Sean, but what is your point?” Here’s my point. We as Christians, and as not-yet Christians i.e. human beings, are told that the two greatest commandments are to “LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, ‘LOVE your neighbour as yourself.' ". So in light of this command and these definitions, I want to ask you a few self evaluating questions…

“Do you love God?”
“Do you love your neighbour?”
“Do you really know what true love is?”
“Do you love your wife/fiancé?”
“Do you love your parents/children/brothers/sisters/co-workers/friends/congregation?”
“Do you use the word ‘love’ too liberally/do you mean it when you say ‘I love you’?”
“Does your life characterise the very definition of love?”

Now let me be the first to take the giant plank of wood out of my own eye and say that when I read the very questions I wrote, I find I fall abysmally short, and find myself extremely challenged. Let me be honest with you; when I look at this verse and then get into the grind of every day life, with Natalia, in the traffic, or in the shops, I get pretty instant feed back on how I am doing...Not very well, in fact I sometimes feel quite hopeless. I fall so short of this standard. In fact the more I read the Bible and understand that I need to be seeking God’s righteousness in my life and therefore applying the principles taught in it to myself first, I realise there is quite a gap. Now you might be asking, “Sean, how am I ever going to love that way?” or even, “How am I going to get God to love me if I fall so far short?” and, “Sean, where is the hope?”

Friends, there is hope, and this is what it is. It is found in 1 John 4:16b, in fact there is a lot of love and hope all over 1 John 4, but 4:16b says, “God is love.” There is your hope, “God is love”. Now God has a lot of other characteristics too, He is good, gracious, merciful, holy, just, omniscient etc. and neither is love, God. But He is love. Another great thing about God is that He is infinite and eternal. So if God is love, and He is infinite, and the definition of love is what we just read, then He is love to infinity and eternity…

My friends, God cannot help loving you, He delights and rejoices over you, not because of who you are or what you have done or haven’t done, but because that is His character. God is patient with you, enduring provocation and annoyance. You know this is true because you see how far you fall short of just this definition and you are still here. He is kind to you, showing you tenderness and compassion. In Jesus He keeps no record of your wrongs, not in any degree or any manner. And guys… God… is… “ALWAYS” and…God…is… “persevering”. Or in other words, God is on every occasion; without exception, continuously; uninterruptedly, forever, in any event; at any time… persisting in His undertaking; maintaining His purpose in spite of “difficulty”, “obstacles”, or “discouragement”; continuing steadfastly, in His pursuit of you…to INFINITY and ETERNITY! God never sleeps; He is sold out on bringing you into His arms. So much so that He gave Himself to die on the cross for your sins, so that nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing could stand in His way of getting near to you! All you have to do is receive it.

What have we done to deserve this kind of love? Well we’ve lied, cheated, stolen, lost our tempers, shouted at our family and friends and even strangers, become addicted to pornography, become totally selfish, not kept our word, treated other with disdain, hated etc. etc. In other words we have done nothing, or rather actually we have done the opposite of deserving love from our Heavenly Father; we have in fact done what deserves punishment and death. Yet that is not what God does. He loves on us and offers us not only mercy, but He offers us life, and not only life but life, but an abundant life in Him. “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.
For those of you who don’t know God or feel like you have done way too much bad stuff to be acceptable to Him, or wonder why would this God have anything to do with you, or even wonder if there is a God… I want to say to you that there is a God, He has forgiven you already; He just wants you to recognise it. He loves you, personally, and beyond your wildest imagination. He is ready to start running towards you, with arms wide open, to hold you and protect you, to give you purpose, hope and a future. He wants to be in relationship with you!

For those of you who are Christians, this is the God we serve, He is our hope. He is slow to anger and quick to forgive. If you feel that you have walked away from God and can’t get close to Him, all you have to do is repent and draw near to Him, He is already near to you, waiting. More hope is that as ambassadors for Christ we are able to love as defined above. Our old self is dead. If we allow Christ to reign in our lives, and decide to live in our new selves (which were purchased by Christ on the cross), and take our eyes off ourselves, we can start loving God and others first, in the choices we make everyday. Through the Bible Jesus will teach you how, and the Spirit will give you the strength.

All you need is Love and love.

I cannot think of a better way to end this email than by asking you to listen to the attached song that a friend of mine from YWAM wrote during our mission to Indonesia. It deeply and accurately describes the heart of God. I want you to listen to it and the brief testimony he shares before it. If you have any questions, (Like, “how do I come to know this God?”), requests, or have been moved in anyway through this email or the song, please, please email me back.

I miss you all dearly, and really do love you.

Yours in love
Sean

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