Though I have it all, I have nothing if I have no love

 

 

In case I've never told you, Ted Dekker is one of my most favorite authors. His work is one of my primary inspirations within my own writing journey. And this week, I'm revisiting his Forgotten Way study. And let me tell you... WOW.

I first went through it several years ago, and it impacted me to a degree at that point. But I was also way younger and way more immature. Now, especially with all the things the Lord has been teaching me over the last two years, Ted's insights are hitting me even harder.And that's just the intro chapter that I read yesterday night.

Lemme quote you what he said.

"The preeminent evidence shown by those who know the Father is this: love. And not just any love, but the unique kind that loves enemies, not only those who show us love in return. A love that is patient, showing no jealousy or arrogance, keeping no record of wrong, not seeking its own and not provoked by another's behavior."

This is the powerful agape love that the church preaches. We spend eons trying to bring people into this radical revelation of the love of Christ, then we teach them all the rules that they have to do to earn his approval. How do we deny the union with Christ in this way? He said that he will abide in us and we will abide with him. Yet we portray Christianity just like every other religion in the world.  

You have to make yourself good enough for God.

 Those believers who live in this way, have they not left their first love? Did they ever truly experience it, or perhaps has their entire religious foundation been the works-based dogma of the Pharisees?

And the church at large has been so good at showing their beliefs in every way except the one that actually matters. Or they *think* they are good at showing the evidence.

The church is proud of how sexually pure it is. Till a prominent Christian is discovered as a closet adulterer. The church is proud of its honesty. Till a mega-church evangelist is caught in a major racketeering scheme.

To continue sharing Ted's perspective:

"We show profound words, speaking truth in the tongues of men and angels, yet if we rise up in anger at our brother we are as guilty as any murderer. We show informed doctrine and all knowledge, having studied the Scriptures, yet we do not love the lowest person as Christ. We may give all our possessions and surrender our bodies to be burned and have faith to move mountains and heal disease, calling him Lord. We call ourselves born again, baptized in water and spirit. We are diligent in Communion, singing in choirs, serving the church, paying tithes, reading Scripture, fasting going on missions..."

And yet.

Yet, all these things profit us nothing if love does not rule our hearts.

What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:7-8

And I say these things closely following an earlier blog entry, in which I argued for eternal security. That those who have truly been saved can't lose it, and those who seem to lose it never had it.

Because the tragic truth is, the evidence of salvation is not there. And this is why we are commanded to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. Because the proof is in the pudding. And this is why the church at large may be one of the biggest mission fields left in the world.

God's love IS going to change you. The radical wonder and amazement at his gift of salvation IS going to leave you awestruck. The things of this life WILL grow strangely dim. The truth and doctrine and generosity and martyrdom and diligence and servitude and all those other things, are simply the overflowing expression of the love of the Father.

If you are saved, the love of God will begin to radiate. If that love is not radiating...

You have nothing.

Yet, I do not leave you with this. See, there are *also* those who really do love. Who really are loved. But have somehow forgotten. The Evil One has been permitted to cover their eyes for a time. They genuinely love, yet they stumble around, lost in dogma, trying to earn the Father's approval because they are convinced that they have to. These ones need simply to remember.

God loves us with the exact same kind of love he asks us to show to others.

A love that holds no record of wrong. A love that is kind in the face of cruelty. A love that is everything Jesus ever taught.

He doesn't want you to know about His love. He wants you to experience it. Because that experience will radicalize your world.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

And then you will have everything.