I Love You Too Much

God is love. We say it, we sing about it, we love to talk and preach about it. But what does it mean? The older I get, the more I realize how little value and meaning our words have anymore and it is very difficult to understand what a word is intended to mean. I struggle much with the word love, because its meaning seems to have been lost.   For example, I love Mexican food and I love my family...but not in the same way.

So when we say that God is love what exactly does that mean? Does it mean that God, because He is love, is fine when we behave badly? That He turns a blind eye to sinful behavior?  Does it mean that anything goes now, because we have a loving God?  Does it mean that God is out there somewhere at our beck and call and all that He is there for is to make us happy?

If we knew parents who didn’t care what their children did or how they children behaved, would we label them as loving parents? If one spouse didn’t care whether the other spouse cheated on them, would we say that they were in love? I would venture a guess that we would all respond with a resounding No! No… parents who don't care what their children do or a spouse who doesn’t care what their spouse does would be considered apathetic…and apathy is very far removed from love! In fact, it might be considered the antithesis of love. So then why do we put apathy on God and call it love?

In order to truly understand the depths of God's love we must first dig down deep into the depths of God's wrath. I don't like doing this. I don't like the wrathful God that we sometimes read about in the Bible, and I certainly don't like to talk about it and think about it. It's overwhelming and scary. I don't like how dirty and sinful and rotten I feel when I think about this Holy God who abhors sin of any kind.  I prefer to gloss over those portions of Scripture, try to explain them away, or ignore them. But the truth of the matter is that Jesus’ death on the cross makes no sense if I don't understand the wrath of God. And for Him who knew no sin to become sin on my behalf is completely pointless if the "love of God" can simply turn a blind eye to sin. So the first step in understanding the love of God is to understand the wrath of God and the holiness of God and let that understanding lead us to repentance and then to great joy at His merciful forgiveness.

Second, as believers in this truth of God’s wrath and our salvation from this wrath through the work of Jesus on the cross, we need to also understand that a loving God is deeply involved in our lives and in the process of transforming us into the image of Christ for His glory.  In this process of transformation, He is willing to do whatever it takes to mold us and shape us and protect us from the destruction that sin has in our lives when it runs its course. He is willing to set aside our temporary happiness for something far more valuable…our healing and our freedom from the bondage of sin.

My boss had an terrible accident several months ago and fell off the roof of his house, and was seriously injured in the fall. He is making a remarkable recover and is currently in the middle of Occupational Therapy...which he often refers to as the "pain chamber." As he talks about the intensity of the pain of the healing process, I can't help but think about our spiritual healing. My boss was broken in his fall from the house. We too have been broken in a much bigger Fall. We know we are broken and we know we live in a broken world...it's obvious as we look around...crime, divorce, suicide, suffering, illness, death...this is not how it was meant to be.  

If my boss' therapist would stop working on him because the pain was too much...would my boss be healed? Would he ever recover the full use of his hands again? If the therapist was apathetic in his job and wanted his happiness more than his healing, he would never be healed. The same holds true with God. If he wants our happiness more than our healing and transformation...we will never be healed. We will continue growing in our brokenness, being distorted in our spirits and souls...in our lives and in our relationships.

God is love. He absolutely is...but when we think about this loving God, let us remember that He loves us too much to let us continue on in our sin. He loves us too much to be apathetic about sin and the destructive toll it takes on our lives. He loves us too much to not do whatever is necessary in our lives to bring about the healing of our souls. He loves us too much to not do the work of healing and transformation. Let us be so grateful for this loving God who’s mercies are new every day, and let us be fully surrendered to Him in the transformative work that He is doing in our lives.