One
essential ingredient of the Jesus-follower’s life is love. We have enough
hatred in the world to meet everyone’s need for that. The news is filled with
stories of hatred. And the stories of love are usually ones that trivialize it,
like a lost puppy being rescued or a sex change operation that is being paid
for by the tax payers for a prisoner. The stories of self-sacrificing love are
extremely rare. Could it be they are rare because self-sacrificing love is
rare? Perhaps, but the more likely explanation is that this kind of love doesn’t
sell advertising.
This
kind of self-sacrificing love doesn’t have its origin here on earth. This kind
of love has a heavenly origin. This kind of love is evidence of God’s character
working in someone’s life. John tells us that the person who loves like this
has been made alive by the LORD. They have had a heavenly birth in addition to
their earthly birth.
Mom
and Dad were responsible for our earthly birth. It still takes two, even in our
day of artificial, surrogate, and multiple parent designer babies. Dad might
not even know Mom, but he is involved. And no one would deny the role of Mom in
the birth. But earthly birth is not enough. We must be born in a manner that
involves God in the process. This is the post-birth birth.
And
when we have that post-birth birth, we come to know God in a different,
personal way. It is similar to the knowledge an infant has of its mother at
birth. Birth opens us a whole new realm of knowledge to the infant. They have
already learned many things about their mother even while in the womb. But when
birth takes place their world of knowledge explodes. They look into their mom’s
face and begin to call for responses and give responses. They ask for their
needs to be met and they have their needs met.
So
when we know the LORD, we love as He loves. Just as the infant responds to the love
of the parent, we respond to God’s love for us by loving each other. And if
there isn’t this love response, John tells us that we don’t know the LORD. Love
is an essential outcome of knowing the LORD.
Love
is something that happens after our birth. The LORD creates in us a new being
when we believe. And one of the outcomes of that new growth is love. If there
is no love, we can honestly doubt the reality of the birth. And we must
remember that love is not required prior to birth. It is something that comes
as a result of the birth. God does His work in us and we respond with love
toward each other.
So
how is your loving going?