The Love of God - Food for a Hungry Heart
Scripture reference: 1 John 4:7-12
Recently I had the great pleasure of hearing the testimony of a fifteen year old boy at the church I am a member of. He revealed that he came from a home where, for whatever reason, he did not feel a great deal of love. For that reason, he had a hunger for love in his heart. It was the thing missing from his life. It was the thing he was seeking, without really knowing that was the source of his emptiness. By the grace of God he was led to our young congregation when it was just a house church meeting in the pastor's home. There this young man found what his heart had been seeking. He was immediately fed the love of God. It was in that way this young man was led to Christ.
In verse 8 of our reference scripture we are told that "God is love." The way the old Greek language works is different from modern American English. Therefore this simple phrase actually convey a deeper revelation of how God lives, and how we are to live. The statement "God is love" means that God's nature, the core of His being which motivates all of his behavior, is love. God is a loving being who does everything he does out of love. He creates out of love. He gives life out of love. He rules by love. He judges by love. A person is known by their nature as revealed by their actions. In this way, God is known and His nature is revealed by His love.
It should not be a mystery to any one that all humans need love. After all, if we are created in the image of God, whose very nature is love, then it follows that our nature would need love to be complete. And when that element is missing, we feel incomplete, and seek something to makes us feel whole. Some seek power; some seek wealth; some seek sex; some seek nothing and submerge into isolation and loneliness. But all men need love to be complete, or perfect, as the Bible states it. And that perfection comes from knowing God. For when we know God, we know that perfect love our nature needs to be whole and complete.
Because God loves us, He wants us to be complete, to be the perfect being He intended us to be when He originally created Adam. That is why Jesus commanded us to love. We are to love each other; we are to love our neighbors; we are to love our enemies; we are to love God. Living in love and doing every thing we do in love is the only way we can conform our nature to that of God and become complete. It is the only way to perfection. To conform to the love of God as revealed to us and demonstrated to us by God's only Son, Christ Jesus.
Jesus told Peter that if he loved Jesus he should feed His sheep. (John 21:15) In Matthew 25:35 Jesus indicates that those He will consider among the righteous are the ones who fed the hungry. This admonition should not be interpreted only in a physical sense. For Jesus himself tells us that man does not live by bread alone. (Matthew 4:4) We are also to feed men's natural heart hunger for love; understanding that our fellow men can never be whole and complete without that love which comes from God through Christ Jesus. And it is our duty to distribute that life giving food.
As God is Spirit and man is mortal or carnal, we cannot truly experience and share God's love unless we have the Spirit of God in us. This is why Jesus told the apostles that He would ask His Father to send the Holy Spirit to us. And it is why everyone who wants to have his hunger for love fed, must be reborn and baptized with the Holy Spirit. In our mortal nature, we cannot know God. Therefore we cannot receive His life giving love, and share it with others. It is only by asking Jesus to take away our mortal life and give us the life He came to provide us with that we can then know God, and be filled with His love through His Holy Spirit.
Love is the food of the heart. It is necessary for real life. It is God's love that provides abundant life; eternal life. It is God's love that all men need to be complete and whole. Love is the element of God's nature which, when it becomes part of our nature, makes us one with God. It is the element by which God creates and gives life. It makes those who are born again new creations, and empowers them to call the dead to life. God's love is the source of all life. Without it, there is no real life; only dead existence.
Let us live a life conformed to God, having His love as our nature. Let us be motivated in everything we do by the love of God as revealed to us through Christ Jesus. In this way we become instruments of His creating, life giving power. The power of God's love.
May the love of God live in your heart and guide your ways. Amen.
Recently I had the great pleasure of hearing the testimony of a fifteen year old boy at the church I am a member of. He revealed that he came from a home where, for whatever reason, he did not feel a great deal of love. For that reason, he had a hunger for love in his heart. It was the thing missing from his life. It was the thing he was seeking, without really knowing that was the source of his emptiness. By the grace of God he was led to our young congregation when it was just a house church meeting in the pastor's home. There this young man found what his heart had been seeking. He was immediately fed the love of God. It was in that way this young man was led to Christ.
In verse 8 of our reference scripture we are told that "God is love." The way the old Greek language works is different from modern American English. Therefore this simple phrase actually convey a deeper revelation of how God lives, and how we are to live. The statement "God is love" means that God's nature, the core of His being which motivates all of his behavior, is love. God is a loving being who does everything he does out of love. He creates out of love. He gives life out of love. He rules by love. He judges by love. A person is known by their nature as revealed by their actions. In this way, God is known and His nature is revealed by His love.
It should not be a mystery to any one that all humans need love. After all, if we are created in the image of God, whose very nature is love, then it follows that our nature would need love to be complete. And when that element is missing, we feel incomplete, and seek something to makes us feel whole. Some seek power; some seek wealth; some seek sex; some seek nothing and submerge into isolation and loneliness. But all men need love to be complete, or perfect, as the Bible states it. And that perfection comes from knowing God. For when we know God, we know that perfect love our nature needs to be whole and complete.
Because God loves us, He wants us to be complete, to be the perfect being He intended us to be when He originally created Adam. That is why Jesus commanded us to love. We are to love each other; we are to love our neighbors; we are to love our enemies; we are to love God. Living in love and doing every thing we do in love is the only way we can conform our nature to that of God and become complete. It is the only way to perfection. To conform to the love of God as revealed to us and demonstrated to us by God's only Son, Christ Jesus.
Jesus told Peter that if he loved Jesus he should feed His sheep. (John 21:15) In Matthew 25:35 Jesus indicates that those He will consider among the righteous are the ones who fed the hungry. This admonition should not be interpreted only in a physical sense. For Jesus himself tells us that man does not live by bread alone. (Matthew 4:4) We are also to feed men's natural heart hunger for love; understanding that our fellow men can never be whole and complete without that love which comes from God through Christ Jesus. And it is our duty to distribute that life giving food.
As God is Spirit and man is mortal or carnal, we cannot truly experience and share God's love unless we have the Spirit of God in us. This is why Jesus told the apostles that He would ask His Father to send the Holy Spirit to us. And it is why everyone who wants to have his hunger for love fed, must be reborn and baptized with the Holy Spirit. In our mortal nature, we cannot know God. Therefore we cannot receive His life giving love, and share it with others. It is only by asking Jesus to take away our mortal life and give us the life He came to provide us with that we can then know God, and be filled with His love through His Holy Spirit.
Love is the food of the heart. It is necessary for real life. It is God's love that provides abundant life; eternal life. It is God's love that all men need to be complete and whole. Love is the element of God's nature which, when it becomes part of our nature, makes us one with God. It is the element by which God creates and gives life. It makes those who are born again new creations, and empowers them to call the dead to life. God's love is the source of all life. Without it, there is no real life; only dead existence.
Let us live a life conformed to God, having His love as our nature. Let us be motivated in everything we do by the love of God as revealed to us through Christ Jesus. In this way we become instruments of His creating, life giving power. The power of God's love.
May the love of God live in your heart and guide your ways. Amen.
Comments