Compassionate Love

Does God have compassion when you suffer?

When we suffer, we can take comfort and hope in knowing that God cares, that he has compassion on us, and that in love he heals.

Jesus demonstrated this when he met a leper who had faith to be healed but was uncertain of the Lord’s willingness.

Mark 1:40–42 says, “Then a man with leprosy came to him and, on his knees, begged him: ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. ‘I am willing,’ he told him. Be made clean.’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean” (CSB).

God’s love is not aloof and uncaring. This man’s disease and pain moved the heart of Jesus. And because, in love, Jesus cared, and because he had the ability to heal what was broken, he acted.

God the Father’s compassion

From beginning to end, the Bible reveals that God’s love is compassionate. His heart is moved by human suffering. He feels pity and sympathy for those in pain and desires to alleviate disease.

2 Corinthians 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (NIV). So, as always, by his compassionate, merciful actions Jesus perfectly demonstrates the heart of God the Father. That is, it is not just Jesus who is compassionate, while the Father is uncaring.

Far from it! This verse describes God as “the Father of compassion.” The Greek word translated “compassion” in this verse is oiktirmos, which according to one lexicon means compassion, pity, mercy, the bowels in which compassion resides, emotions, longings, manifestations of pity.

This of course is in full harmony with what God reveals about himself in the Old Testament. In one of the most important revelations that God gave to humanity of his nature, God passed before Moses and proclaimed his name, that is, his identity, saying: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness….” (Exodus 34:6, NIV). The first quality God uses to describe himself here in the Old Testament is “compassionate.”

Examples of God’s compassion in the first chapters of Genesis

God showed this over and over again. When pain first fell upon the only two members of the human race, Adam and Eve, when they sensed shame at being naked and guilty, God of his own accord made for them clothing (Genesis 3:21). In this act and in other ways, although he had just pronounced judgment on them, he also showed them mercy.

When Cain killed his brother Abel, and God pronounced judgment in the form of banishment, Cain cried out, “‘My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.’ Then the LORD said to him, ‘Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.’ And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.” (Gen. 4:13–15, ESV) We might have expected God to say to the first murderer, “Cain, that’s what you deserve.” But no; in surprising compassion, God protected a murderer from violence.

God’s compassion in healing and deliverance

This is the heart of God. Certainly he judges righteously, yet he also shows mercy and tenderness even to guilty sinners who sincerely turn to him in their need.

So, when we suffer in any form—physically, emotionally, financially and materially, relationally—and we suspect that our sins may have brought this upon us, and consequently we wonder whether God will help us, we can rest assured that God has compassion toward all who turn to him in humility and repentance.

And because he is compassionate, he acts to heal our brokenness. He cares and he heals. That is one of the most prominent features of the ministry of Jesus. Everywhere he went he healed those who believed and delivered them from demons. And the Bible often makes a point of the fact that those healed had been especially guilty of sin.

God cares

Knowing God’s compassion, whatever your need or sickness, emotional or physical, you should “humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6–7, ESV).

Our way and God’s way

Our way: When we suffer pain, we may wonder whether God has compassion because we cannot see God and our suffering may continue despite our prayers.

God’s way: He is the most compassionate being in the universe whether we feel it or not and whether we are healed or not. God is infinitely more compassionate than even the most merciful human.

January 7, 2019December 20, 2018

Inseparable Love

You cannot be separated from God’s love if you sincerely love him.

Separable

A few years ago my wife Nancy was sitting in our Sunday morning worship service when she glanced at her left hand and then did a double-take. The diamond on her wedding band was gone. She had a mild panic and began looking around, on her lap, the adjacent chair, the floor—no diamond. She began crying. When we got home, she searched our apartment. No diamond.

We never did find it and were deeply disappointed.

This is a picture of life. We lose things we love. We lose people we love. And the more that happens, and the more painful the losses, the easier it becomes to fear losing what we now have and love.

I will never forget the sudden emptiness in my soul when at age 18 I moved away to college three-months early, on Memorial Day weekend, in order to train with the gymnastics team for the summer. The house I moved into was virtually empty except for one or two other students because most everyone went home for the holiday weekend. I experienced homesickness for the first time, and the sense of pain and loss was sudden, acute, and took me completely by surprise. It really hurt.

Far greater still was the painful surprise 15 years later when my mother and father were in a car accident, and my mother died a few days afterward at age 62. That was the first time I experienced the death of an immediate family member, and it was a shock to my emotions. I grieved for months. I felt pain I had never felt before. At the funeral I remember vividly how difficult it was to believe that she was now separated from me in a way I could not overcome. I could not talk to her or be with her. We were truly separated, at least until we are reunited in heaven. This was not like going away to college and feeling homesick, for then I could write letters to my family, talk on the phone, and go home if I really wanted to go home. No, when my mother died, we were truly separated.

God’s inseparable love

These memories of loss and separation help me appreciate fully one more quality of God’s love. The Lord promises that if we will sincerely follow Jesus, nothing we experience can separate us from his love. Nothing.

In Romans 8, which many people regard as the greatest chapter in the Bible, Paul describes all the ways that God has graciously expressed his love and goodness toward us in Christ. Then he turns to the opposition that Christians face. In the Roman world at that time, following Christ could bring violent, government-sanctioned persecution. What’s more, serving Christ to spread the gospel, as Paul did, meant great hardship. In the face of all these troubles, did Paul feel as though he had somehow lost God’s love?

Far from it. Rather, he writes:

“³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35–39)

Nothing

Paul was not writing in rhetorical metaphors when he spoke of tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword. He had experienced each of these threats firsthand except for the sword—that would come later. But he was certain that none of these things could rob him of God’s love. Neither could death. Neither could supernatural beings like angels or demons or mighty spiritual powers in heavenly places. Neither could any other created thing that any person can face in any place, at any time then or now. They cannot separate us from God’s love. We can separate ourselves from God’s saving love, as Judas did, but nothing outside of us can do that to us.

Tenacious

So, we do not have to fear losing God’s love. His love for you is like the love Ruth pledged to her mother-in-law Naomi, only greater. When Naomi urged Ruth, now a widow, a Gentile, a Moabite, to return home to her family and people, Ruth responded: “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you” (Ruth 1:16–17).

Ruth’s love was humanly tenacious. With none of the weaknesses of fallen humans, God’s love is divinely, perfectly tenacious. He promises to stand by you. You can count on it. No created thing can separate you from the Almighty Creator’s love.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:27–29)

So, fear not; God’s love for you is far stronger and more tenacious than your love for him.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We may stop loving others. We may run out of love. Due to our own fault, we may fall out with others; divorce others. Our love can be fickle and self-centered.

God’s way: God’s love is tenacious. His love never ends for those who sincerely love him. His love does finally come to an end for those who persist in rejecting him.

December 31, 2018November 4, 2019

God’s Universal Kindness

No matter how painful our lives are or have been, we all have tasted enough of the kindness of God to love him and worship him forever.

In Kindness God Sends Rain on the Just and the Unjust

I was speaking with a relative recently who has lived long and experienced much hardship, suffering, and loss. In such seasons she has repeatedly experienced help from other people that enabled her to survive and cope. She has never forgotten the kindnesses people have shown in her times of need, and she lives to do the same for others. She said, “The human virtue that I value most is kindness.”

She is not the only one.

It is kindness, God’s kindness, that draws us to him.

God sends rain on the just and the unjust

God is both benevolent, as we saw in my previous post, and beneficent. These words do not have the same meaning.

Webster’s dictionary defines beneficent as “doing or producing good” especially in the sense of “performing acts of kindness and charity.” Last week we looked at God’s goodwill, which is an attitude; today we look at his good actions.

Acts 17:25 says God “himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

Psalm 145:9, 15, 16 says, “The LORD is good to all, and hismercy is over all that he has made…. The eyes of all look to you, and you givethem their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire ofevery living thing.”

Jesus said that our Father in heaven “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

God does good things for everyone, even those who reject him and do extreme evil. He shows universal kindness.

For example, our five senses

God gives not only sunshine and rain to all kinds of people, even to those who do not return his love as they should, but also such wonderful gifts as the five human senses: eyesight to look upon the beauties that fill the earth; hearing, which enables us to communicate with others and enjoy music; smell, which enables us to taste food (thanks be to God!) and enjoy the fragrances of flowers and nature; taste; and touch (imagine going through daily life with a body that could not sense touch, as though you received a 24/7, full-body novocaine shot).

Any one of these senses is a treasure by itself. All come from the God of universal kindness, not from evolution, not “mother nature,” not from chance, but from the deliberate design of the God who controls all things in your life even before you are born. If you have any physical senses, you should thank not your parents or your chromosomes, but your beneficent God. They are just one example of his kindness.

Entitled

One indicator of just how great is God’s universal kindness is how much people take their blessings for granted and either neglect to thank God or deny that he is the source of every good. God’s universal kindness is so great that people think that they deserve a life filled with good things. They think the world just ought to be filled with sunshine, rain, fertile soil, food of innumerable varieties, people, natural resources in the ground, blue sky and livable temperatures, green grass, beautiful and fruitful trees, flowers, birds, edible vegetables, animals, fish, clean water, music—to name just a few of our God’s universal kindnesses.

If we go to Mars or any other planet, we see that such a profusion of goodness is not automatic.

Obviously, not every person enjoys every kindness. In our fallen world, which groans under the consequences of sin, life in this world can be cruel, and people can suffer great harm, deprivation, and handicap. But even in those circumstances, there is goodness and mercy from God. There is the gift of existence as a conscious, living being, of this earthly life, and the offer of eternal life through God’s gift of Jesus Christ.

God’s love is beneficent, marked by universal kindness expressed to every person. It is an expression of his grace, his unmerited favor. And it also has a purpose: “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4).

God’s wallet

I read one author who said he always carries a one-hundred-dollar bill in his wallet reserved for one purpose. He gives it away as God leads.

Likewise, God has an infinite number of one-hundred-dollar bills in his wallet, and he’s giving them all away, daily, over and over again, to every person in the world. He enjoys it. His beneficence is the tangible expression of his benevolence. His universal kindness is the concrete outworking of his goodwill.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: To feel that God owes us more.

God’s way: To lavish kindness on all.

December 24, 2018July 17, 2021

Benevolent Love

No matter what happens in your life, you can always trust God to bring you the highest possible good from it.

Let’s meditate on one of the sweetest of all truths about God’s love: His constant, capable, and inexhaustible benevolence.

That benevolence is summed up in one of the most quoted verses in the Bible: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28, ESV). Another translation says, “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God” (NAU).

The Old Testament expression of that idea is: “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

Or, “‘I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11, NAU).

Or, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6).

Or, “Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” (Psalm 35:27).

These are just a few of the verses that express the meaning of the long Latin word benevolence, which comes from two Latin words: bene, which means well, coupled with volantem, which is a form of the word for wish. So it means well-wishing, goodwill. The Lord wills what is good for you. A wonderful truth like this deserves a big word like benevolence. God’s capable, constant, and inexhaustible desire for you is for good to come to you.

God’s benevolence is capable

By the word capable I mean that he is able to pull it off. He can make good happen—really, really, really make it happen. No one is more capable of producing good than God. He doesn’t just wish good for us but lack the power to bring it about, like an agonized father sitting in the bleachers watching his daughter perform in a high school gymnastics meet. God showed what he can do in Genesis 1, “and it was good.” He showed his power to bring good when he made Joseph vice pharaoh of Egypt, Ruth the wife of Boaz, Solomon king of Israel, Mary the mother of Jesus, Abraham the father of all who believe, and Mary Magdalene the first to see the risen Christ. God has all the skill, power, authority, desire, and wisdom necessary to bring maximum good—indeed, infinite good—to his children.

And because he loves us, that’s what he’s doing, today and always, even when we don’t recognize it as good because in this fallen world all followers of Christ suffer. We’ll recognize God’s goodwill fully when we get to the New Creation and receive our rewards.

God’s benevolence is constant

God’s benevolence is also constant, unceasing, without interruption. Yesterday, out of the 86,400 seconds in your day, there was not one second when God wavered in his goodwill toward you, when he felt ill-will, not one heartbeat. Over the course of 2018, out of the roughly 31,536,000 seconds in your year, there will not have been one, split second when God had ill-will toward you, not one blink of the eye. His goodwill is constant, unceasing, without interruption, like water over Niagara Falls.

I look into my own heart and think about my benevolence toward my sons. Even though my heart is fallen and selfish, I can say there has not been one moment when my goodwill toward them wavered, when I wanted something bad to happen to them—and I am but a weak and sinful human. If a human father is like that, think of God’s constant benevolence.

God’s benevolence is inexhaustible

Even Niagara Falls can someday run dry. It is subject to earth’s ever-changing climate and topography. But God does not change. He is love and will always be love. He is good, he does care for us, and he will always be so. Even the oceans could eventually be emptied of their 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of water, but you cannot empty God of his benevolence. His goodwill literally has no limit. Take out 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of benevolence from the heart of God, and there would still be 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of benevolence remaining.

For all eternity we will keep drinking from the sweet fountain of his benevolence, and it will never lose its pleasures.

Benevolent love

Earlier this year I played a game of Chutes and Ladders with my grandson Charlie, who at the time was 4-years-old. Chutes and Ladders is a board game in which you roll dice and move your marker along a path toward a goal. The first player to reach the goal wins. Simple, except that you can land on squares that put you on a ladder that advances you forward several levels and you can also land on squares sending you down a chute that sets you back several layers. You can also land on squares that give you a card that helps or hurts you.

Of course Charlie wanted to win. I also wanted Charlie to win. There was not one bone in my body that wanted Charlie to lose that game, and there was no way he was going to lose that game because no matter what Charlie rolled, with my help things turned out well for him. And no matter what I rolled, I made sure that in the end the grandson I love won the game and had a fun time.

In the same way, no matter what numbers you roll in life, God is making sure that you win in the end.

“We know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28).

That’s benevolent love.

I invite you to read my weekly posts about
knowing God and his ways better.
—Craig Brian Larson

December 17, 2018March 20, 2020

Unwavering Love

Do you ever feel as though God’s love for you fluctuates based on your conduct?

Christians need to live with the assurance that God loves us. Our soul needs this in order to have peace, joy, and security.

One obstacle we face when trying to live with the assurance of God’s love is our daily failures. When we fall short of God’s perfect will, when we are carnal and worldly, when we fail to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, when we are selfish, we feel less worthy of love. We feel God must therefore love us less.

God’s love and our sin

The battering ram that breaks that obstacle into teeny pieces is this truth: God loved you first, before you ever loved him or wanted him, while you were still a wayward, rebellious sinner at your worst. God does not restrict his massive love to holy people; he also loves sinners—even Christian sinners. He is always calling Christian sinners to repentance and holiness, but he loves them even before they get things right.

This love should not make us complacent in our sin, for that would be to trample underfoot the Son of God and insult the Spirit of grace (see Hebrews 10:29). But the knowledge of God’s love should draw us back to him, giving the assurance that he wants us.

Romans 5:6–10 teaches this:

^“6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

The point of these verses is that God loved us before we were worthy of love, before we were justified (v. 9), before we were reconciled to him (v. 10), while we were his enemies (v. 10). This proves that his love does not depend on our perfection.

God’s love and wrath

Verse 9 draws an inescapable conclusion. If we are a Christian, if we have been justified by his bloody death, then we are saved, saved from our sins, and thus saved from the status of being God’s enemies, and thus—this is all-important—we are also saved by Jesus from the wrath of God. A Christian does not live under the wrath of God, as God’s enemies do. Jesus has removed God’s wrath from us, at the cross, with his blood.

If you are a Christian, God’s wrath against you is history, in the sense that, now if you commit a more serious sin, incurring his displeasure and even righteous anger, he does not come to you bringing condemnation (Romans 8:1), but rather fatherly discipline (Hebrews 12:5–13; Revelation 3:19). He is still your judge (1 Peter 1:17), but he now judges you as a member of his household (1 Peter 4:17). He now judges you not vengefully as your enemy but redemptively as your Savior (1 Corinthians 5:1–5, especially v. 5).

Now, for the true Christian, we experience God’s faithful, covenant love. Jesus is alive, beloved of God the Father, and we are in Christ, and thus we are also beloved of God the Father. His is not a soft love, or a love that indulges our sins. As we will see in future posts, it is a strong, fatherly love that rebukes and disciplines as necessary, that judges as necessary, that never compromises the truth. But it is still the love of your Father who accepts you in Christ as you repent daily of rebellion.

So, Christian, did you have a bad day yesterday in which you failed God? Or a bad week or month? The one thing you should not do is assume God no longer loves you with infinite, faithful, covenant love and as a result doubt your relationship with him, grow discouraged, and stray even further. Talk to your Father and make things right. Ask for his help in overcoming sin, for he never expects you to overcome sin on your own. Ask mature Christians and pastors to help you.

God’s love and comfortable sinners

Have you had a bad year or two, following the ways of our sinful world consistently? You should not doubt that God loves you, but you should question whether you are a true Christian. A true follower of Jesus cannot go on sinning and sinning in a major way without deep distress and a tormented conscience. See 1 John, especially chapter 3. God loves you and calls you to repent, or condemnation likely awaits you. Presently you are deceiving yourself. If you are living comfortably in sin, you almost certainly are not a child of God, not justified by the blood, not reconciled to God, but rather still God’s enemy—whom he loves and for whom he gave his Son. (Again, read 1 John carefully.)

God loves his enemies before they love him back. If you are comfortable in sin (such as those listed in Romans 1:18–32; 1 Corinthians 6:9–10; Galatians 5:19–21; 2 Timothy 3:1–5), God loves even you, but give him the sincere repentance he requires and save yourself while there is yet time.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We feel God’s love fluctuates based on our conduct.

God’s way: God’s love for his true children is unwavering.

December 10, 2018November 4, 2019

How to Experience God’s Love

God pours his love into the heart of every Christian through the Holy Spirit, but we may need to learn how to perceive it.

How do we experience God’s love?

In our relationships with people, we experience love through what they say and do. When someone says, “I love you,” those words do something; they are powerful.

But people also communicate love powerfully in a way beyond words and physical expressions like hugs and kisses. We can feel a person’s loving spirit, warmth, goodwill, and enjoyment in our relationship.

Likewise God tells us, “I love you,” but he also communicates his love in spirit. Romans 5:5 says:
“God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

The implications of this verse are many.

God’s love in our hearts

You can experience the love of God in a way that transcends words and thoughts about God’s love. The verse doesn’t specify whether we are experiencing God’s love for us or an infusion of love into our hearts toward others. Probably both. A Christian may not be able to point to overwhelming experiences of feeling loved by God, but since becoming a Christian he or she may feel more abundant love for other people and relate to others far more often in the way described in 1 Corinthians 13. That could be what Paul describes as God’s love being poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
The experience of God’s love can be abundant. God’s love is “poured into our hearts,” not dripped into our hearts. The experience of God’s love is described in liquid terms with the analogy of water pouring from a pitcher.
However, the experience of God’s love comes from the Holy Spirit, so a person is making this known. This is more than the experience of a shower in impersonal water.
God’s love is revealed in “our hearts.” We feel it. If we don’t feel God’s love for us and in us for others, it may be that our mind is getting in the way, that we are thinking wrong thoughts leading to wrong feelings, because at the level of human spirit united with God’s Spirit his love has been manifested.
This experience is spiritual, supernatural, divine, not just emotional, for it comes through the Holy Spirit. He gives the experience spiritual substance and reality. It is not just an idea. You don’t imagine it or work it up; rather, you perceive what he is communicating.
If we don’t feel we have experienced this, we should ask God to teach us to discern and recognize this love. Make it an ongoing prayer until you can say with assurance, “The love of God has been poured into my heart. I feel God’s love for me. I feel God’s love for others.”
If we continue to feel that we have not experienced the outpouring of God’s love in our hearts, we should also ask God to teach us to discern and recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. According to this verse, we should be able to discern his presence. If you believe in Jesus Christ and follow him as a true disciple, you are not just you. Another person lives in you and is one with you, a divine person, the Holy Spirit. Pray that he will teach you to discern his anointing in you, and patiently pay attention to your soul. In a few weeks, months, or perhaps years, you should become aware of God’s movements within.
The experience of God’s love prevents disappointment and shame. It makes suffering and endurance worthwhile.
The verse doesn’t say anything about this love leaving our hearts. God’s love is there, just as surely as he is there. But we may need to clean away the clutter and dirt that accumulate within and hide God’s love. So, if we quiet our own thoughts that will at times be fleshly and worldly, if we forgive every grudge we hold against anyone, if we repent of all known sin, if we surrender our lives fully to God and die to self, if we consider who Jesus is and what he has done for us, and if we turn our hearts in worship and thanksgiving to God and wait patiently on him, we will likely find the love of God radiating in our hearts.

A few decades ago, Michelangelo’s masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was restored. He originally did the painting in the early 1500s, and over the centuries the soot of candle smoke, wax, and air pollution had accumulated on it, darkening and hiding its colors. Although the masterpiece was still there, it had lost its colorful luster. So, the church brought in specialists in art restoration to put up scaffolding, climb to the ceiling, and painstakingly remove the layer of grime. What they found beneath the dirt startled them: bright, vivid colors not seen there in generations. The restorers didn’t normally add color; instead they needed to remove what was hiding the painting’s true colors.

(Check it out here.)

December 3, 2018February 28, 2020

God’s Merciful Love

God’s love for sinners is so great that he can feel both wrath and love toward the same person. How great, then, is his love for his children who have turned to Jesus in faith!

Ephesians 2:1–7 provides another crucial revelation that will deepen your understanding of the love of God and how it differs from our love.

God’s love for sinners precedes their salvation

First, in verses 1–3, notice our wretched, unlovable state before we find life in Jesus:

“¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Before we become a Christian, we are dead in sin. We follow the sinful ways of the world. In doing so, we follow Satan (most of us unwittingly). We disobey God’s commands. We follow sinful desires arising from our flesh and mind. As a result, we are “children of wrath,” that is, we are the objects of God’s righteous wrath. God, the Holy One, is burning with furious anger toward those who do evil. That is important to see because it sets the stage for the wonder of his love.

God’s love for sinners overflows in mercy and grace

Next, in verses 4–5, notice how God responds to the people who arouse his wrath.

“⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4–5)

Here is the wonder. God does not give us what we deserve—if we turn to Christ. Instead he shows mercy. Verse 4 says he is “rich in mercy.” He is richer in mercy than Jeff Bezos is rich in money and stock, infinitely richer.

And he shows this mercy “because of the great love with which he loved us” (v. 4). His mercy is an aspect of his love. God’s love is a merciful love. Because he loved us, he decided to show mercy to us, to help us in our need, to rescue us from the wretched, evil condition we were in.

So, God has “great love” (v. 4) for sinners. God’s love for sinners is greater than the greatest love you or any human has ever felt. God’s love is infinite, even for sinners, even for his enemies who make him angry, even for those who despise God and choose what he despises.

John 3:16–17 offers the proof of this love: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

God had this great, sacrificial love for us when we were still unlovable. That means God also loves Christians greatly, despite their unloveliness, despite their ongoing sins. His love arises from his own character, not ours. He loves us first, before we have any love for him.

God loves the unlovable with the compassion of a good person who does not want others—even evil persons—to suffer and die. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is…not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” Ezekiel 18:32 says, “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD.”

So, God’s love is merciful, God’s love is great, and God’s love is gracious. “By grace you have been saved” (v. 5). God gives sinners what they do not deserve, offering Jesus to them as the only way to be saved and forgiven. God gives Christians what they do not deserve, so great is his love. His grace arises from himself, from his loving character.

God’s love for sinners made righteous will bring never-ending kindness

Finally, notice what the future holds for those who receive God’s love by believing in Jesus:

“ ⁶ and [God] raised us up with [Jesus] and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6–7)

God saved us “so that” he could forevermore show us “kindness.” God is so loving that he intends to pile kindness after kindness on us through Christ. Saving us is not the end of the love story; rather, it is only the beginning. Once again we will experience “immeasurable riches,” this time riches of grace. We are going to be treated like kings, like VIPs, like favorite sons and daughters, forever, not because we earned it but because God is love. It is his nature to give. He enjoys being kind, in an immeasurable sort of way, just as he enjoyed make a universe so big we can’t imagine it, and he enjoyed making life on earth more profuse than helicopter seeds on a Maple tree.

Get ready for it. It’s going to be overwhelming, forever. Kindness upon kindness upon kindness upon kindness, all through Christ, all from love. God is the great Lover, from whom come immeasurable riches of mercy, grace, and kindness. Love is who he is and what he does and what he wants.

If you are living for anything other than God, get over it, for you have your sight set on what is not worthy. This love of God is the great prize of life.

Our love and God’s love

Our love: We love our friends, those we like, those who do kind things for us. But even in our love for them, we usually have limits.

God’s love: He richly loves all, even his enemies, even those who are wicked and ungrateful. And his love is inexhaustible. He loves because it is who he is and what he delights in.

November 26, 2018November 9, 2018

Massive Love

Christ’s love is always greater than we can grasp, and it brings us into the fullness of God.

Today we begin a new theme. I choose this theme because, like the previous theme of holiness, it plays a major role in enabling us to know God rightly. The theme is God’s love. We see the significance of this theme for knowing God in Ephesians 3:16–19, where the apostle Paul prays for his readers

“that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Are you interested?

Christ’s Love

Notice the progression in these verses:

1. God strengthens you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.

This is not automatic; we don’t experience the full measure of God’s power simply because we believe in Jesus. So, Paul prays it will happen (Eph. 3:14–16).

2. As a result of the Spirit dwelling abundantly in you, Christ dwells in your heart through faith.

The power of the Spirit enables faith in Christ. The power of the Spirit brings the actual indwelling presence of Christ into your heart. (v. 17)

3. As a result, you are rooted and grounded in love, because God is love and God is now indwelling you through the Holy Spirit. (v. 17)

At the most fundamental level of your soul, God is powerfully there. And so love is abundantly there, and you are planted in that love like a tree with roots deep in rich soil; and you are built on that love like a building whose foundation rests on bedrock.

4. As a result, you have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth (v. 18).

God’s love in you gives you the strength to comprehend. Love equips you to understand. Love enables you to know. So love puts eyes in your head. And what God’s love strengthens you to comprehend is big. It’s broad, long, high, and deep, like the ocean. Like the expanse of outer space with its one hundred billion galaxies each burning with a hundred billion stars, an observable universe 93 billion light years across. When God’s love fills your heart, it is as though a powerful telescope, like the Hubble, enters your soul and you are able to see far and wide into great spiritual truths that you never could see before.

5. As a result, you are able to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

The love of Christ is so great that it surpasses any person’s ability to fully know it. Think of a scientist who devotes her fifty-year professional career to mapping out something as complex as the subatomic world, trying to understand what atoms are made of, in a mysterious world that turns the normal laws of physics inside out. After a lifetime of study, growth, and breakthroughs, she knows there is still so much of that mysterious world she does not know.

So it is with the love of Christ. We know his love, but only partially—so great is its length, breadth, height, and depth. That he, God’s Son, fully God in awesome holiness, would become a man, and live in this evil world, and offer himself to his Father to suffer and be tortured at the hands of evil men, and bear on his soul all our evils, and suffer for them—this is love incomprehensible. We can know it, but we can’t know it. We can revel in it yet never exhaust it.

That he would live to intercede for us now continually before the Father as our High Priest. This is love infinite in length, breadth, height, and depth. You are not on your own. You have a Redeemer who intercedes for you in love.

That he would rule the circumstances of your life in meticulous detail, with perfect timing in every occurrence, for his highest purpose. This is love infinite in length, breadth, height, and depth. For you.

6. Finally, as a result, you are filled with all the fullness of God.

Knowing the love of Christ to any degree is the ultimate. It is like a mountain climber who scales Mt. Everest and looks out upon the shining world from its peak. Only we never can truly reach the peak of knowing Christ’s love. The nature of God is such, and he has designed us such that love is the ultimate. No matter how full you feel as you meditate on all the various qualities of God, nothing will give you greater fullness than knowing his love. Nothing will give you greater joy, peace, hope, satisfaction, significance, and security.

And however much you are able to grasp this love and rejoice in it, remember that you are still only seeing a small fraction of how great it actually is. He still loves you way more than you know. Christ’s love is like an iceberg. You see some of it above the water, but there is way more under the water that you do not see. Always there is more. Meditate on that, and be full.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: Our love is limited and small, and we think Christ’s love is like ours. We think Christ loves us only to the extent that we can imagine or feel.

God’s way: Christ’s love is always greater than we can grasp.

November 19, 2018December 29, 2020

Jesus’ Top Priority Prayer Request

Pursuing holiness by understanding God’s holiness gives you the most satisfying life possible.

The Son of God taught us to pray:

‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’ (Matthew 6:9).

Therefore Jesus taught that the first request we make in prayer is that God’s name be honored as holy in our lives each day.

The first words of this prayer are the address: “Our Father in heaven,” but the first request is “Hallowed be your name.” This means that Jesus is showing us the chief desire of his own heart and what should be the chief longing of our hearts. You should long for God to be seen as holy in your life each day and pray accordingly. God’s holiness is supposed to be of ultimate importance to you.

Pursuing holiness replaces other pursuits

This means that the holy one in your life each day is not money, your investments and security, your employer, your job performance, advancing your career, padding your resume, building your network.

The holy one in your life is not a best friend, romance, spouse, family, or children.

The holy one is not a visa or green card or citizenship.

Neither is the holy one Hollywood, sports, video games, travel, food and restaurants.

The holy one is not sex or the pleasures of drink, drugs, or clubs.

The holy one is not adventures or experiences.

Rather, your holy one is The Holy One. The Almighty, infinitely loving, infinitely wise and good Creator and Sustainer of every living thing. The Father.

Every day you begin by setting God apart for highest devotion, love, and praise. That’s who the de facto holy one is in your life. It’s whoever or whatever is set apart in the temple of your heart for highest devotion, love, and praise.

Pursuing holiness revolutionizes your world

People can sense who the holy one is in your life. If your holy one is God, people will know it. There is a spiritual atmosphere in and around a person who regards God as the Holy One, the One set apart for highest adoration, praise, and thanks. When that is the ongoing condition of your heart—not merely a decision made once that is now compromised by other chief concerns—but rather when adoring and honoring God as the Holy and Incomparable One is the ongoing condition of your heart, then the Holy Spirit rules in your heart and clothes you with his presence and makes himself felt in the space around you. You become a holy man or holy woman who brings the awareness of God, even the reverence of God, to others.

You become a holy one. So you become what you already are—a saint—through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. And that condition, being a holy man or holy woman, becomes sweet and satisfying to you. Where at one time in your life you may have laughed at the idea of being a holy one, now in Christ it becomes both your identity and pursuit. You rejoice that you are already holy through faith in Jesus, but you continue to pursue holiness in your motives, thoughts, desires, words, and actions. You go through your days taken by the reality that you serve a holy, awesome God, and you really can aim to be holy because he is holy.

Holiness and the holy things God has put in this world become increasingly attractive to you. Prayer becomes something you can never get enough of no matter how much you pray. The Word of God becomes an ocean of life you can never exhaust. God’s people, God’s house, become your family, your house. God’s work becomes your family business.

All this and much, much more happens when God becomes your Holy One. It is the most wonderful life, because it is the life you were created for. And it endures forever.

How to pursue the Holy One

Proverbs 9:10 says, “The knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” The knowledge of God is insight; the knowledge of God as holy is insight. Understanding God’s holiness will revolutionize your life. You will have more insight and wisdom than the lost and aimless world around you.

Keep pursuing the knowledge of God’s holiness by reading and meditating on His Word, in company with holy people doing the same. The Word of God confronts you page after page with the Holy One. That’s why the world rejects the Bible and most people avoid it. Because in page after page the Bible confronts you with the Holy One, and you either have to repent and walk in reverent fear of this Holy God and trust in Jesus to make you right with him, or you have to reject him altogether. But you cannot humbly read about the Holy One in the Bible and stay the same. He is too great, too awesome, for that.

November 12, 2018December 29, 2020

Sinning unto Death and the Holiness of God

A person can sin unto death by violating God’s holy boundaries. God vindicates his holiness by withdrawing his gift of life, turning a person over to death.

Over the last year or two we have seen something become common in the corporate world that used to be rare, and it gives us insight into one aspect of God’s holiness.

Hardly a month now goes by without a high-profile executive, journalist, or politician losing their job because they have crossed a boundary that once was not fatal to one’s job. For example, there is now zero tolerance for racist actions, sexual abuse, or saying derogatory things about women. When a leader crosses one of these boundaries, the company fires them and thereby shows its disapproval of the words and actions of the offender. The company knows that no matter how talented and effective that leader has been, many in the public will turn against that company if they tolerate such behavior. Better to lose even their best employee and try to salvage their name. No one is bigger than the company. By firing an offending employee, they uphold what they and the public regard as good. Good companies fire leaders who violate vitally important boundaries.

To cross certain boundaries is to sin unto death

In the same way, God has boundaries. And for some of his boundaries there is zero tolerance. This is not because God is bad, but precisely because he is good. Holy means good. God protects the things of highest value, moral weight, and significance. What is of highest value in all existence is the honor of God’s holy name. God’s holiness is the ground of all truth, purity, righteousness, virtue, and justice. Therefore, his holiness is all important not only to him but to humanity and all the moral creation including angels, authorities, powers, and so on. God’s holiness is more sacred and important than any human life.

As a result, there are several surprising stories and sections in the Bible that tell of God’s having to withdraw the gift of life from a person who violates the boundaries of God’s holiness. That is how God vindicates his holiness. That is how God makes clear to others the seriousness of violating this boundary.

These stories don’t get talked about much because they don’t fit the popular notion that God should always be nice no matter how evil a person becomes. It makes us uncomfortable to think that God would end a person’s life because of something that we may not even regard as a serious violation. But make no mistake, there is no greater boundary you can violate than God’s holiness. If you regard that boundary like men once regarded sexual abuse of women, you will sooner or later find that it is a big deal to God.

You, too, have boundaries

God and companies are not the only ones with zero-tolerance boundaries. You also have boundaries. There are things you will not allow anyone to do or say to you. You respect yourself enough not to let violations happen again.

Good people, good companies, good governments, and our good God—all have proper boundaries. And for the most serious of those boundaries, there is zero-tolerance.

Examples of sin unto death

Here are stories and passages, both in the Old and New Testaments, that describe times when God takes back the gift of life that he gave in the first place in order to vindicate his holiness. As you read this list, keep in mind God’s words through Ezekiel: “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 18:32).

The great flood kills all that breathe except Noah and those in the ark. Genesis 6–8.
The cities and people of Sodom and Gomorrah are burned with fire from heaven. Genesis 19:1–29
The Angel of the Lord slays all the firstborn of Egypt, and then the entire army of Egypt that pursued Israel into the Red Sea. Exodus 11, 12, 14
Aaron’s priestly sons Nadab and Abihu try to offer unauthorized fire to the Lord, and fire goes out from God’s presence and consumes them. Leviticus 10:1–3
Moses fails to circumcise his sons, and God comes to slay him for rebellion against this fundamental commandment for all Israelite males. But Moses’s wife circumcises the children just in time to save Moses’s life. Exodus 4:24–26
Seventy men of Beth Shemesh look into the ark of God and die. 1 Samuel 6:19–20
Uzzah puts his hand on the ark of God and dies. 2 Samuel 6:1–10
Korah and other leaders in Israel rise up to oppose the authority of Moses and Aaron, and the earth literally opens beneath their feet, and they and their households are swallowed alive. Fire also goes out from God’s presence and consumes 250 other rebellious leaders. Numbers 16:1–40 (verses 37–39 are especially revealing)
The people of Israel arise in rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and a plague breaks out, killing 14,700. Numbers 16:41–50.
During the time of Israel’s 40-year journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, there were other similar occasions when major sins resulted in major loss of life: Exodus 32. Numbers 11; 14:1–38; 21:1–9; 25:1–13.
The priestly family of negligent Eli and his wicked sons die. 1 Samuel 3–4
The Angel of the Lord slays an army of 185,000 Assyrians whose leader had taunted God. Isaiah 37:23–38
There are several stories of people mistreating Old Testament prophets—who spoke the words of God and therefore carried God’s authority—and dying as a result. 2 Kings 1:1–15; 2:23–24. Jeremiah 28.
Many in the Corinthian church were not treating the Lord’s Table with proper respect, and so some offenders became sick and some died. 1 Corinthians 11:27–34
Ananias and Sapphira lie to the Holy Spirit and die, and—what might be surprising to us—the church grows in numbers and favor afterward. Acts 5:1–14.
King Herod is slain for receiving praise as a god after an effective speech. Acts 12:21–23
The apostle John writes about the sin unto death. 1 John 5:16–17.

Well, you get the point; I’m sure the list could be longer. Since we naturally feel compassion for other humans and most of us are in no hurry to die, it is normal to shudder at stories like these. Death is tragic; God himself regards death in these circumstances as tragic. Again, God told sinful Israel, “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live” (Ezekiel 18:31–32).

Why do I compile a detailed list like this? Because God records these stories in his book for a reason. He wanted them in the Bible. They are not a dark secret about which we should be ashamed or defensive. This is an important part of God’s holiness.

Reverence before God

Some people have the insolence to question whether God should do this. It is our wisdom and humility to say with Job, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). God always does right. In American culture we are seeing the moral decay that results when people lose the fear of God.

God has warned humanity, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The vindication of God’s holiness is infinitely more important than the lifespan of any human; those who object probably see it the other way around. (But God forbids anyone from taking punishment into their own hands. That’s called murder, which God outlaws. God gives only civil governments the right to execute the death penalty. See Romans 13:1–7.)

Our sins, Christ’s death

I conclude with good news. God has made a way to show mercy. He has provided his Son Jesus, who on the cross took the death penalty for all people. You can run to him in faith and find mercy from God.

John 3:16–17 says, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

1 John 5:12 says, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

If you have not done so already, turn now to Christ and begin following him as your Lord and Savior.