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The Love of My Heart

It is an incredible thing to think about the love of God. The more we think about HIS love, the more we are prompted to love him and to love others as well. This is actually what Jesus tells us in John 15. The things we love will often be determined by the way we see them.

When we think about God’s love, many people seem to think that they have to try to earn God’s love or favor. It is as if they think they need to try to do something special in order to gain God’s attention. Sometimes we spend an awful lot of time doing things to try to catch Jesus’ attention or to make a good impression on Jesus. We go to church, we help other people, we try to be honest in our relationships, we try to use good and clean language. Do you think these things catch Jesus’ eye?

It makes me think about the OT story of Samuel and the assignment he was given to interview Jesse’s sons to find the new king who would replace the disobedient Saul. Do you remember what happened when Samuel saw Jesse’s oldest son Eliab? The Bible says, “Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”

 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:6-7).

One of the reminders of God’s love for us is demonstrated by the fact there is NOTHING we can do to attract or gain God’s attention. The fact of the matter is he watches us all the time. If God watches the sparrow and doesn’t miss a single event in the sparrow’s life, how much more does God watch and care and love us, his children? As the lover of our heart, Jesus observes every event of our lives. Paul reminds us that Jesus does not only watch our lives, but he is also at the right hand of God the Father interceding on our behalf. In every circumstance of our life, whether we are winning the spiritual battle overwhelmingly or we seem to be overcome by doubt, temptation, and discouragement, Jesus, our heart’s true lover, is interceding on our behalf. Praise his name!

Let’s think about the way that words are used so profusely in our expressions of love. If we really love someone or something, it is amazing how hard we will work to try to find the words to express our love.

Words are a very important part of any story of love. I can remember when I first met my wife Mieke. My wife Mieke is from Holland. When she came to America to study at Nazarene Theological Seminary, I was one of the first people she met. As I got to know Mieke better and as we started to do more and more things together, I was very intrigued by the interesting way she would say things. Now, you have to understand that Mieke can speak very good English, but as a Dutch person, many of her thoughts and expressions carry a very distinct Dutch flavor. As we began to date and to become more serious, I can remember many conversations in which we would look at each other and say, “I have no idea what you are talking about!” Or we would say, “What in the world did you mean by that?” Many times, Mieke would say to me, “Well, I just can’t explain that to you in English!”

As our love and commitment to each other grew, it became more and more important for me to try to understand what my beloved Mieke was thinking and how she was thinking. Her English was very good, but the language of her heart and her innermost thoughts was not English – it was Dutch. When the realization began to dawn upon me that this was the woman that I wanted to spend my life with, I began to learn the language of my loved one.

You see, when you really love someone, you want to be able to understand everything about them. You want to spend your time with them. And there is almost nothing that you would not do for them. Well, how can you do that if you don’t really speak their language? The answer is: You can’t! You see, for Mieke, the English words “I love you” have a meaning that she learned in an English class and that she understands with her head. But it was not until I was able to look her in the eyes and say the Dutch words, “Ik hou van jou”, that I was able to speak a language that she understands with her heart.

In many ways, this is what God has done for us in Christ. The greatest story of love is God’s story of love for us through his Son Jesus Christ. Because of God’s great love for us, he pursues us. He lifts us up. He draws us to himself. He gives himself. He learns our language and speaks our language, not only through great prophets and messengers from heaven, but through the lips of his own Son Jesus Christ, who emptied himself for us because of his great love, and took upon himself the form and likeness of a man.

Paul talks specifically about this love story of God through Christ in his letter to the Ephesians. Paul explains that Christ loved us (his bride the church) so much that he gave himself up for us. What a profound mystery it is to realize that God loves us so much that he would even die for us. One of my all-time favorite passages is found in Romans 5:6-8. Paul writes, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is such an amazing passage because it reminds us that Jesus did not die for us because we were such great people or such faithful friends to him that he felt like we deserved such a sacrificial act of love on his part. No. In fact, the very opposite was true. Jesus came and died for us while we were acting in defiance and in rebellion against him. Indeed, he died for us while we were acting out in sin against him. And yet, even while we were sinners, Christ died for us anyway. It really is incredible to think about.

And do you know what? There is something that is very unique about love. I am convinced that true love always produces actions of love. True love does not grab and covet and hoard things to itself. No! True love produces love. This is the truth that John describes to his readers in his first epistle. John writes, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:7-12).

Through Jesus, God has taken upon himself to learn the language of our heart. God did not only SAY that he loves us, but he demonstrated his love for us through giving us Jesus. Nowhere does the expression of Jesus’ love for us become any clearer than on the Cross at Golgotha. As we read in our passage this morning from John chapter 15, Jesus himself said, “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). And this is precisely what Jesus did. Jesus gave his life, he spilled his blood, he poured out his life for us, for you and for me. What greater way could Jesus have showed us his love for us?

The reality is that Jesus calls each and everyone of us as his followers to not only receive his sacrificial love, but to love others with the same kind of sacrificial love that he showed us when he laid down his life for us. When we do this, then the love of God bears fruit in our life, just as it bore fruit in Jesus’ life. This is how we remain in Jesus’ love. We remain in his love as we love others with the love of Jesus. Listen to what Jesus said in verses 9-10. “As the Father loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” Then Jesus explains how we remain in his love in verse 10. Jesus said, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love.” And what did Jesus command? He reminded them twice in this passage what he wants and requires us to do. Jesus said, “This is my command: love each another.” May God find us faithful and obedient as we remain in his love. How do we do this? By loving others!

- Dr. Daniel Powers serves as the Director of the Pastoral Ministries department at NBC.