Our Master said, "Love one another as you are loved." (Part 2)

Part 2: What it Means to ‘Love…as we are Loved’

“Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.” [Psalm 36:5]

Last week we looked at what it means to have a Master—or, what it means to be Mastered. We discovered that it means his commands are non-negotiable: we must say to him “thy will be done,” or he’ll say to us “thou will be done” ; we must choose either “No,” or “Lord,” but we can never say “No, Lord.” Now that we understand this command is not up for debate, we must get to the business of understanding exactly what we have been commanded to do. So, this week, we’re going to look at what it means to “love…as we are loved.’

To begin with, we must realize that we are not free to love people in any we see fit. We cannot say “well, this is how I love people.” He didn’t command that. His command was very specific: “Love one another as you are loved.” In essence, he said ‘this is what love looks like: do it this way. Rather, do it my way—follow my example.’ Which means that if we are to obey this command in truth, we must understand the nature of God’s love toward us.

So, what does God’s love toward us look like? I think the answer is in at least two parts:

1) what is the purpose of God’s love? (or, why does God love us? To what end?) and

2) what is the nature of God’s love? (or, how does God love us?)

First, what is the purpose of God’s love? In his essay titled The End for Which God Created the World, Jonathan Edwards wrote “All that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God's works, is included in that one phrase, the glory of God.” All of God’s activities and motives are all wrapped up in that same purpose: the glory of his name. (See Romans 9, 11; Ephesians 2:7-9; Colossians 1:16; and Revelation 4:11, KJV. For a complete list, see Edwards’ book—especially chapter 2, section III.) This means that in our loving one another, our goal must be to bring glory to God. And, since “the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever,” that means that we love people by helping them enjoy God. And joy in God glorifies God. So, the purpose of our loving one another must be God-centered and God-exalting and God-soaked—we must love people for His glory, and their joy. Sometimes that will mean saying things that are temporarily hard to hear, but will lead to eternal Joy in God himself. We love people best by loving God most.

Second, what is the nature of God’s love, or “how does God love us?” This is a huge question, but we’ll just look at four basic ways: initially, undeservedly, unreservedly, andunceasingly.

a) Initially. Throughout scripture, God always makes the first move. This was so with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, you, and me. If we are to love one another as we are loved, we must love one another initially. That means that we make the first move toward godly relationships. (See John 6:44; Ephesians 1:4; 1 John 4:19) (Please note that I am not referring here to godly romantic relationships. There are other principles for those—perhaps that will come later.)

b) Undeservedly. God’s love is a gift—no person alive (apart from Christ) has ever deserved it. God’s love and forgiveness springs from his mercy and grace, and so must ours. Many will offend us, both believers and non-believers—they will not always deserve our love. But if we are to love one another as we are loved, we must love one another undeservedly. (See Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Isaiah 64:6; Titus 3:5)

c) Unreservedly. Since God’s love for us is not based on our merit, or on our performance, but on that of Christ, he can and does love us unreservedly. There is no end to his love, neither in quality or quantity. “He who did not spare his only Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” If we are to love one another as we are loved, we must love one another unreservedly. (See Matthew 18:21-35; Romans 8:32)

d) Unceasingly. Here is perhaps the best, and most challenging part: God loves us without end. Once he chooses us, and sets his love upon us, it will never, ever, fade away. His love is eternal and unchanging. So, if we are to love one another as we are loved, we must love one another unceasingly. (See Psalm 16:11; Jeremiah 31:3; John 6, 10; Romans 8, 11:29; Revelation 5)

Our Master said “Love one another, as you are loved.” To obey this command, the purpose of our love must be God’s glory and their joy, and we must love initially, undeservedly, unreservedly, and unceasingly. I don’t write this so our minds will be filled with more fodder for lively, spiritual-sounding conversation. I write this so that we all might “think on our ways, and turn our feet toward his testimonies” [Psalm 119:59], and “Examine ourselves, to see whether we are in the faith.” [2 Corinthians 13:5] We are so prone to deceiving ourselves about how we’re really doing with God; and that’s eternally dangerous. I write so that would apply truth to life, live out being mastered, and “Strive [Gk. ‘agonize’] to enter through the narrow door. For many, [our Master told us], will seek to enter and will not be able.” [Luke 13:24]. Let’s not deceive ourselves—let’s be doers.

[Stay tuned for Part 3: Loving as we are loved: ‘I AM, your stepping stone.’ An illustration of a community loving as they are loved. Thanks for reading!]

Recommendations

[site] Louie Giglio’s message from this past Tuesday night, “Good God Almighty: Who is Jesus? (Part 2)” – A great follow-up to last week’s discussion about the absolute, invasive Lordship of Christ. (He even used the same text: Luke 6:46!) He does a much better job than I could, and even goes on to answer the question ‘why don’t we submit to his Lordship?’ – which we talked about in the message from 10/07/2004. Message starts about 34 minutes in.

[book] Jonathan Edwards’ The End For Which God Created the World,available online. It’s long and challenging, but it’s one of the most important things I’ve ever read outside the Bible.