Advance Love First

We are all damaged goods. I think it is essential that we remember this. The fruit of pride and rebellion is pain. There might be the moment of pleasure, of defiance that feels like freedom, momentary consolation, or fleeting power, but after that fades, we are still left with pain - the pain we inflict, and the pain we carry away. Sin is crippling in many ways, but perhaps the greatest is the fear and distrust it imparts that makes it hard for us to receive love.

I believe the first task that Jesus has given us is to help people learn to receive love. It is not the only task, but it's where we need to start. Before someone can agree with God, before they can repent and begin to set their lives straight, before God's renewing love can bring freedom and health there must be a surrendering to God's love. This is more than an intellectual exercise. It requires trust and vulnerability. Two of the things sin crushes.

We have other tasks. There are actions and philosophies that we are called to oppose. We are to be watchful of error and deceit. We are to call out and oppose injustice. But all of that is meaningless if it doesn't advance love. That's the root cause of self-righteousness. We defend causes and ideas while forgetting why God sent us out in the first place. It starts with God, but then it's all about people.

Our continuing freedom is wrapped up in this as well. Sin is still at work. We want to judge. We want power. We sometimes fear what the world fears: loss of possessions, outsiders taking our place, being left behind, becoming insignificant. We are tempted to take matters into our own hands, circle the wagons, and return to our oppressive ways. We all struggle with sin, but our release is still the same as the one we offer the world. We again trust and surrender to God's love. We continue to let God channel his love through us.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." (1 John 4:16) This is the first lesson God gives us and the one he returns to again and again. It was God's love that inspired him to send Jesus. It was his love that led him to raise Jesus from the dead and won our salvation. It was his love that motivated him to send his Spirit to us. It was his love that hunted you down and brought freedom to your life. It is his love that is healing our scars and teaching us how to better receive love so that we might be freed to give love.

The first step of salvation is to open up to God's love for us, so our first task is to help people receive love. They have been hurt, selfish, prideful, and sometimes downright deceitful, but none of that will change until the walls that hold out love come down. Most people believe deep down that they don't deserve love - and they are right. Love is a gift and not a wage. We need to love first, often, and in creative and surprising ways. We need to love until a hurt, damaged person finally is able to receive the single most powerful truth in the universe: they are loved by us and, most importantly, by God.

This isn't easy for us. It cost Jesus his life. But this is part of the reason God sent his Spirit to us. The Spirit is here first to continue to express God's love and intimacy to us. We are not forgotten after we respond. But that same Spirit empowers us to love beyond our means, and that's where the real adventure starts, where we begin to experience the true power and faithfulness of God - and where we begin to really understand the greatest truth of all: God is love.