He loved him as he loved his own life.

 

Friday, June 30, 2023


Psalms 148; 149

1 Samuel 20:12-34

Acts 13:26-41


He loved him as he loved his own life.


Faithfulness; loyalty; charity; courage: all these noble ideals that we are taught to uphold should we wish to follow the way of Christ – they are attitudes that we can will into existence. They are the outward manifestation of that beautiful thing we call love, yet they are not love itself. Love drives us to act in these ways, and they are often against the grain of our fallen nature. The fact we sometimes need to grit our teeth and roll up our sleeves and push ourselves very hard to show charity to others, or get the courage to stand up for truth, or anything else our walk of discipleship requires of us is not a poor reflection on our love for Christ; it is very noble to do something we would rather not for the sake of someone we love.


Let’s cast our minds into a place where the possibility of the desire of the heart and the actions of the will are performed in perfect unity. A place where to show love is the same as to feel love.


Recall what we know about Jesus’ mission of salvation on this earth. He willingly came to and for us; He was willingly sent by the Father who loves Him and us. Everything God does for us is because of the love God has for us. God’s actions of love towards us are intimately connected with the feeling of love God has for us. To love God in return, so that everything we do for Him we actually love doing for Him, is the divine ideal. And that divine ideal of love is also the second part of the great commandment: to love our neighbour as ourselves.



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