Category Archives: Love

Jesus wept!

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Far too often, we as Christians are influenced by the culture around us and not by the word of God. It is exactly this tendency that is in view when Romans 12:2 exhorts us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…”

Do grown men cry? Should they?

Well there was only one perfect expression of manhood who walked this planet. It was not John Wayne, Tom Cruise or some other Hollywood superstar. The most perfect man was Jesus Christ, fully man as well as fully God.

“Jesus wept” (John 11:35) is the shortest verse in the entire Bible – short on words but long in what it reveals. It is all the more remarkable because Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus from death. Why cry when within minutes, grief would be banished and He would get glory from such an outstanding miracle? Yet such was His love, such was His compassion both for Lazarus himself and for his family’s grief, that Jesus wept real sincere tears. There was nothing fake about them.

Acts 8:2 tells us that when Stephen was martyred the Church made “loud lamentation” over him. They were not scolded by God for their tears and told to be more spiritual or to act more “grown up”. The Scripture’s complete silence of scorn and ridicule for the Church’s tears speaks volumes to us.

Even when Jesus knew deliverance was right around the corner and was just about to bring it, He cried… He wept. The fact that you cry does not mean you do not trust God or His promises. It means you are truly human and you feel real pain. God has designed our tears to be release valves for the strain, stress and pain we all feel in this world. Your tears are precious to God. So much so, that He even makes the promise to you that He will one day wipe all tears from your eyes. Continue reading →

Augustine on Love, Hatred and the Cross

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God’s love is incomprehensible and unchangeable. For it was not after we were reconciled to him through the blood of his Son that he began to love us. Rather, he has loved us before the world was created, that we also might be his sons along with his only-begotten Son—before we became anything at all.

The fact that we were reconciled through Christ’s death must not be understood as if his Son reconciled us to him that he might now begin to love those whom he had hated. Rather, we have already been reconciled to him who loves us, with whom we were enemies on account of sin. The apostle will testify whether I am speaking the truth: ‘God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us’ [Rom. 5:8]. Therefore, he loved us even when we practiced enmity toward him and committed wickedness.

Thus in a marvelous and divine way he loved us even when he hated us. For he hated us for what we were that he had not made; yet because our wickedness had not entirely consumed his handiwork, he knew how, at the same time, to hate in each one of us what he had made, and to love what he had made.

Quoted in Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1960), 506-507

HT: Desiring God

If you love somebody…

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In the context of business dealings and financial transactions, Jesus said, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” (Luke 16:8) I think this principle of shrewd insight extends to many areas of life as the world stumbles upon truth. Man is made in the image of God and although much has been marred by the Fall, he is still able to think and come up with sound reasoning on many matters.

The people of the world may not be able to comprehend the amazing facets of the gospel, or see the wisdom and power of God in the cross of Christ (1 Cor 1:18-25), but they can make statements which are entirely accurate and true on a whole host of issues. For example, the unbelieving car mechanic may know a whole lot more about cars than you or I do. That is why, when my car is not working properly, I take it to him rather than a pastor. In fact, I dont even ask the mechanic if he is Baptist, Presbyterean or charismatic; nor do I ask for his views on end time events in the book of Revelation. His personal beliefs are immaterial to me. I simply ask him if he can find out what is wrong with the car and if he can fix it. Now after he finishes the job, along with my payment, I may well enclose a thank you note and a Christian tract sharing the gospel. I do care about his soul. However my point is that his personal beliefs play no role at all in determing whether or not I hire him to fix my car.

There is a phrase, “If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever. If it does not, then it was never yours anyway.” I think that’s true. When it comes to parents with a wayward adult child, the sincere offer of friendship, or even matters of the heart and romance, I believe as the song says below, “you can’t control an independent heart.” While expressing your continued love and affection for the person, its very important to free them from any sense or feeling of imprisonment. Let them feel as if they can fly like a bird in the sky – and maybe one day, in the providence of God, they will fly back to you.

The singer Sting is no Christian, but I think he hit the nail on the head, so to speak, in this song (below). Concerning it, he once wrote, “This song was… an antidote to the brooding issues of control and surveilance that haunted ‘Every Breath You Take.’ Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to a partner is ‘I don’t own you–you’re free.’ If you were to try to possess them in the obvious way, you could never appreciate them in the way that really counts. There are too many prisons in the world already.”

Here’s “If you love somebody… set them free”: