By Not Known
My daughter was given a little Barney soft-toy that sings a song – “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family, with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won’t you say you love me too.” It’s a catchy tune with delightful words good enough for a child. However, we know deep within us that such a notion of love is just too simplistic and insufficient to weather life itself.
‘Love’ is not a mere feeling often romanticised in pop culture today. Love songs and stories have always appealed to human hearts through every generation and in every culture in a much deeper and fuller sense. It is the life-force that drives human relationships particularly in the domain of marriage and family. In the Old Testament, the practice of Levirate marriage (Deut 25:5-10; Ruth 4) is one of the highest expressions of kinship and sacrificial love.
More generally, where and when love reigns people are more willing to exercise patience, forbearance, kindness, mutual submissiveness, trust, and forgiveness. Human beings are able to love one another, because we are all made in the likeness of God who is love (1John 4:8). However, we love imperfectly out of our sin-fragmented nature, often selfishly, conditionally, and temporally. Higher love cannot be sought within humanity. It must come from outside and above, from God himself.
The apostle Paul declares in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In short, nothing in this created world and in this temporal life can tear a child of God out of the Father’s hand come what may (John 10:28). God’s saving love for his children is perfect, unconditional, and enduring. You don’t have to go sleepless wondering whether God still loves you. You are not winning back God’s love in your struggle against sin. Those doubts are seeded by the lies of the Evil One which may be expressed as – “Are you sure you are good enough for God? Are you sure God still loves you inspite of your failures? Stop kidding yourself!”
Brothers and sisters-in-Christ, let us know for sure that we are never good enough for God because his standard of holiness is perfection (Matt 5:48). Therefore, we understand all the more why salvation is a gift from God by his grace to us and has to be received through our faith in him who does not break his promises. What has God promised? Meditate on Romans 8:28-30 and you will find rest in God’s awesome promise – He loved you!
Benson Goh