Well-beloved
children do imitate their father. This is the fact of life that you will find in
any culture, ethnic, tribe, and race. Our natural make-up always
reciprocates. We return favor to those who once gave us their favor. We help
those who help us. And 1 John 4:19 says, “We love him [God], because he first
loved us.”
Reciprocal behavior is great. As a social being, we are expected to do so. We’ll be regarded impolite or unmannerly if we don’t reciprocate. I believe every child of God has successfully done this. I have no doubt in it. However, God expects us to imitate Him -follow His example.
I proudly announce that I am a child of God. I confess that I was born again of God. I seek first His kingdom and its righteousness so that He may add all things in my life – and He does. I put His Word as final say in my personal, financial, social, professional, and ministry life. I imitate Him in all those areas of my life. However, I often find myself stumbling over His example to love.
Do you know that God loves you and me with irrational, unconditional love? It’s irrational because our ratio, our intellect cannot absorb it and don’t understand it. Check out the following passages.
Have you ever done any study about 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John? Have you ever spent quality time meditating the passage where Jesus says, “Do not resist the evil man [who injures you]; but if anyone strikes you on the right jaw or cheek, turn to him the other one too” (Matt. 5:39, The Amplified Bible).
Then He continued, “And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain” (Matt. 5:40-41). He also says, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matt. 5:44).
It’s too much to ask from us, don’t you think? Jesus didn’t stop there. He continued saying, “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?” (Matt. 5:46-47). After criticizing our natural reciprocal behavior, Jesus got the nerve to expect us to be perfect in love just as our heavenly Father (read Matt. 5:48).
His love is
unconditional because the Bible says,
“But God commanded his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us” (Rm. 5:8). How unconditional do you want to be? His love
is wonderful! Picture this, I was sinning up to my eyeball and He didn’t love
me less than now when I serve Him. He didn’t wait until I repent and
straighten up. He took the first step to love and forgive me. Wow! Now, how can
I not love this kind of God? If you receive a revelation of His love for you,
it’s impossible to want to sin and go against His will.
What is God-kind-of love? 1 Corinthians 13, New Living Translation, tells us that, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
When we carefully study the characters of God’s love as stated above, we will know that those characters tell us whom God is as “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:16). If God is love, then whatever He does must be an act of love. Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father did (see Jn. 8:38) and therefore what Jesus taught must be love as “God is love.”
However, when you read the accounts of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Jesus was not very patient and kind to the Pharisees and Sadducees as well as to the multitude that followed Him and His disciples. John 6: 60-67 tells us most of His disciples left Him because of His strong words. He even asked the first twelve if they also wanted to leave Him. That’s what I like about Jesus; He doesn’t beat around the bush to express Himself.
Jesus just spoke the truth whether people were mentally ready to hear or not. Since He ministered the way He saw the Father did, that means the Father through the Holy Spirit never waits until we’re mentally ready to hear the truth about ourselves.
Ouch! No wonder it hurts my feelings when the Lord rebuked me. However, I now know that my feelings don’t have anything to do with the Word of God. My feelings shouldn’t be taken into account to obey His Word. I follow Him by my spirit at the direction of the Holy Spirit. My feelings don’t have any say in my life. I suggest that we all should thank God if we get rebuked by His Word or His servant. It means we’re still not too far from Him as we’re still able to hear Him. It’s Him showing His love to you and me. Praise the Lord!
Is it true that
Jesus asks too much of us to love the way He commands us to? He said, “Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophet” (Matt. 22:37-40).
Do you think God
will ask us do something that we can’t? Is it possible for us to love the way
He loves? Of course it’s possible! We are well equipped to love the way He
loves.
Monkeys will reproduce baby monkeys. That’s the natural reproduction law. A human couple would want to have a human baby. I’ve never met any couple who want to have a cute little puppy by their natural reproduction system. Have you?
Well, the Bible says that God is love (1 Jn. 4:16). When we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we are born of God (1 Jn. 5:1). So, if God is love and we’re born of God that makes us baby love. Right? If we are love, of course we can love because that’s our divine nature to love. We’ve got all potential to love the way God loves. We just need to develop it and grow in it.
A human baby has to be taught to behave like a human. That’s why parents teach their kids how to drink, eat, talk, brush teeth, play with peers, etc. Even though their kids have the potential to be human, they still need to be taught to develop it and grow in it. Kids always imitate their parents because that’s the way they’re being taught and set examples to. Whether you like your parents or not, you will always end up like one of your parents. Why? Because you don’t know better, unless you fix your eyes to another example in life then perhaps you may grow differently. This is why broken families always produce broken families.
See, God knows this cycle of life very well because He’s been a man through Jesus. That’s why He tells us to look up to Him and imitate Him (read Eph. 5:1) because He became OUR FATHER when we were born again. As His children, we are expected to follow Him and copy His examples. Jesus says that if we see Him, we see the Father who sent Him (read Jn. 12:45).
It’s possible for us, born again believers, to love the way God loves. The Holy Spirit has already shed abroad God’s love in our hearts (read Rm. 5:5). That means we don’t have to pray for God to pour His love on us so that we can love like He does. That also means our love for others comes from inside our hearts and doesn’t depend on external circumstances. If our love for people doesn’t depend on what people do, that means we love people by faith!!!!
“That’s impossible, Sister Maggy.” Of course it’s not! Remember: you are born again of God, God is love, and that makes you a baby love. A baby love always tends to act like love (just like a baby monkey always tends to act like monkey). You have the perfect love guidebook, the Bible. You have the perfect example to look up to, the Lord Jesus. You have the perfect 24-hour on-call Teacher of love, the Holy Spirit. You are equipped with the perfect might to love, the Anointing of Jesus. Yes, you are well able to love the way God loves! So, let’s develop our love skills so that we may become as proficient as Jesus’ walk in love.