No, seriously he really does, and the fact that I have to follow "Jesus Loves You" with that kind of frustrates me.
Jesus' love is unlike anything in this world. It is unconditional, unyielding, eternal. It is AGAPE. Agape love is so outstanding and incredible that it is hard to define in english. It is the most powerful type of love that there is. Some define Agape love as self-sacrificing, selfless, divine. Agape love can only exist from God. We are impure and as such are not even capable of this type of love. When we love someone, we usual have some self-interest or self serving motives behind it. However, God is pure and he does love us without selfishness.
We are comparatively insignificant to His existence. We are mortal, weak, miniscule beings. We are vastly and eternally smaller than Him, yet He loves us. He does not love us for our actions. He does not love us for our devotion. He does not love us for our gifts. He does not love us for our thoughts. He loves us simply because we exist. He loved all of us before we were created knowing exactly what we would do and say how we would fail Him. God's love is very meaningful and significant.
The phrase "Jesus loves you" means so much in very few words and even so, today it has become a cliché. This frustrates me, today when somebody says, "Jesus loves you" it might not mean that much mostly because I feel we don't understand how much He really does love us. The phase has so much power and meaning behind it but yet it is easily dismissed as Christian jargon. But Jesus truly does love you, more than you or I could ever comprehend.
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8
1 comment:
"Greater love hath no man than this: that he should lay down his life for his friend."
It always strikes me when I think about that.
I can't wrap my head around that phrase "Jesus loves you."
I think modern Christians, myself included, often miss the mark of humility. We strive for it. We want to be humble. We know it's good to be humble. But sometimes humility borders self-deprecation, even self-loathing. We hate ourselves and feel guilt for the things we have done that have blocked us from Christ.
And modern Christians, myself included, also hate to acknowledge the Enemy in our lives. He feeds off of that, he encourages that kind of thought. "The things you've done, the way you've behaved... you don't deserve grace."
And truthfully, we don't.
But Jesus laid down his life for us anyway. That's where the love is. And I can't fathom why. I don't see how I'm worth it.
I can look at my friends, and think, "Yeah, I can see why Jesus died for you. I can see why He loves you that much." Sometimes I think the commandment "Love your neighbor as you love yourself" should be interpreted the other way too: "Love yourself as you love your neighbor."
He didn't die for us, He doesn't love us, so that we can feel guilty. He didn't come to condemn, He came to redeem. There's a great deal of power in that.
Post a Comment