Confidence Day 13 Confidence In Love

Christine Wood
May 3, 2023

Genesis 4:1–16
1 John 4:7–21
1 Corinthians 13
John 8:1–11
“Love is in the air, everywhere I look around,” croons musician John Paul Young.
Sigh.
There have been more songs sung, poetry recited, novels written, and movies made about love than any other topic. We love a good love story. We love going to weddings, when two people in love promise to keep loving each other forever. We love hearing our children declare, “I love you, Mommy.”
I remember falling in love—the way I spontaneously smiled when our eyes met across the room, the way time stood still when we were together. My heart beat faster, my skin tingled, I dreamed about our future together. I felt alive.
We long to love, we long to be loved, and when love is lost, our hearts feel the pain deeply.
We also know what a lack of love looks like. We see it on the news every day. There is hate and division, war and oppression, selfishness and the pain it produces everywhere we dare to look. Without love, evil thrives.
We witness this dynamic at play between the very first siblings at the beginning of time. Adam and Eve, the first family God created, had two very different sons. (Genesis 4:1-16) One (Abel) was full of love, and the other (Cain) rejected God. Cain, jealous of God’s favour on his brother, murdered Abel. And the human condition hasn’t changed.
When Adam and Eve chose to trust in themselves rather than God, sin and death entered the world (Romans 5:12) and infiltrated every part of God’s perfect creation. We are surrounded by it and feel the weight of it every day. “The one who does not love remains in death.” (1 John 3:14) This death results in eternal separation from God, the author of love.
Although we may not have physically murdered our brother, each of us are also ruled by sin and death when we live outside of God’s love. We react to those who hurt us with anger and revenge. We pursue our own pleasure and advancement. We live for today, because we have no certain hope for our future.
Life without God, without love, is death.
There is no life outside of love, just fear and pain.
There is no life outside of love, because there is no God apart from love.
“The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
But there is hope for us, because God overcame sin and death with the gift of His love.
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9)
We can have eternal life because of God’s love for us. When we accept Jesus’ gift of forgiveness for our sins, our lives are transformed by His love. Everything changes. Sin and death are overcome by life and love.
In relationship with God, we are ruled by love. Not just the kind of love we write songs and books and poems about, but the kind of love that changes everything about our lives. It’s the kind of love described in 1 Corinthians 13, love that is patient and kind, doesn’t envy or boast, a love that always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres. A love that reflects the very nature of God.
This love is not just for ourselves. This love overflows.
“Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.” (1 John 4:11)
Because God loves us, and our lives are ruled by His love, we have the capacity to love others, even when they seem unlovable. Because that is what God did for us; He loved us when we were unlovable. (Romans 5:6)
When we have God’s heart of love, we respond to a hurting and broken world with love rather than our old sinful nature. We see the pain behind the anger, we see the fear behind the hate, and we can respond with the love of God rather than our own insecurity and fear.
This is illustrated beautifully when the religious leaders paraded a woman caught in the act of adultery before Jesus, hungry for the punishment of death to be carried out. (John 8:1–11) This woman, the victim of poor choices and complicated circumstances, had no legal recourse; she was guilty. Rather than demanding the death penalty she deserved under the law, Jesus responded in love. He paused, bending to draw in the dusty ground at His feet, reminding the accusers of their own shortcomings, and allowing the anger in the crowd to subside.
Rather than condemn this woman, Jesus gave her a chance to be transformed by His love. Jesus offers us the same second chance, and invites us to respond in kind to those around us who are still caught in the trap of their sin.
We are no longer condemned by our sin. We are forgiven and free, fully loved and assured of our hope for all of eternity. This love and hope overflows through us and spreads to the hurting world around us as we continue to be transformed daily by His power.
We can respond to sin and death with confident love
by loving one another the way God first loved us.
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