Love?

“What is love anyway? Does anybody love anybody anyway?” Those words belong to a song I remember from many decades ago, but the desperation within them rings so true. When I look around, there is not much love between people. Within marriages and families, between neighbors and co-workers. What has gone so terribly wrong in this world? Well, beside the case of the apple and the snake, everything since! Is there any sign that love is still alive? And I would like to take the answer to the obvious, yes, love rose on the third day and sits at the right hand of God. What do I mean by that? Jesus. He is God, who lived a perfect life on earth, endured unfair treatment, torture and an undeserved death on the cross out of love. He did it voluntarily. He loved us so much, that he laid down his life for us. Read the story of his crucifixion in Matthew 27:32-44. It is gruesome, it is sad and it is horrifying. Now some would say, how could a God of love let this happen to his own son? This same God of love, is also a God of justice and without atonement for our sins, we would have absolutely no chance to be accepted by Him. God cannot look upon sin, that is why Jesus said “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (vs. 46). What an awfully lonely state that must have been, to be forsaken by God. Jesus is part of the trinity. He has never been separated from God the father and the Holy Spirit until that point. But he had to endure that state while he carried all of our sins and paid for them, once and for all. The propitiation for our shortcomings. You want to know what love is? Read 1. Corinthians 13 slowly. Someone said, substitute your name where it says love and see if that is a true statement. It makes you think. We should humble ourselves at the feet of the cross and start loving our neighbors as ourselves. God’s way. Which, really is the only way, right?

“Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:16