GOD’S KIND OF LOVE

Our limited human minds often cannot comprehend God’s love. It’s almost too good to be true. God’s unconditional love almost makes no sense because human love is usually very conditional. We all know John 3:16, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…” John 15:13 says: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” God’s kind of love defies human logic and reasoning. John expresses it clearly in 1 john 1:3 when he says “Behold! What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us…”

 

A fallen humanity was restored back to God not because of anything we had done, not because we deserved it, but because of God’s love. In fact the bible says GOD IS LOVE. Love is not just an attribute of God, but God is Love itself. And once we accept Christ, then we are to show forth that kind of love in our lives. A loveless church is an ineffective church. The body of Christ without love is like a toothless dog so to speak. The very foundation of Christianity is God’s love for us. Freely we have received; freely we should give (Mathew 10:8). Unfortunately though, love is greatly missing in most the church today.

 

Here in Kenya we praise ourselves for being Christian nation, and indeed most of the country does profess the Christian faith, but is the fruit evident? As much as the church in Kenya and Africa in general is large in number compared to the rest of the world, love is greatly missing; lack of love has made the church in Kenya very ineffective, almost dead. We see this in the treatment of the poor, the stigma toward the HIV positive and mentally ill, etc. Unfortunately the very cultures and traditions that identify us as Kenyans have many times been an enemy to the cross of Christ. Because of the nature of our cultures and traditional beliefs, the grace of God has not been easy to embrace, and the love of God has not been easy to express. Most of our cultures tend to promote intolerance, legalism and hatred, even among Christians.

 

Most people have accepted Christ, but refuse to lay down the negative cultures and beliefs that conflict with the message of the cross and salvation. We have been blessed with a diversity of tribes here in Kenya. That should be a good thing, right? God loves diversity, which is why eh created different species of birds, fish, plants, flowers etc. That is why the earth is full of different races of people. God loves diversity, but we have turned diversity into a tool for evil, competition, jealousy and hatred. We as Kenyans are all aware of the tribalism that exists in this nation, the stereotypes and judgments that exist towards various tribes, the enmity between certain tribes, which has seeped even right into the core of our politics.

 

The sad things is that we as Christians should not be partakers of such beliefs, but the post election violence truly revealed what is hidden deep in the hearts of most Kenyans. ‘Christians’ were not exempt, but many were partakers of the evil that was happening.

 

God’s ways are higher though. He demands that we love each other just as he loved us. Jesus put it this way “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). If we don’t love each other, we cannot claim to love God. The bible is very clear about that. John says: “If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4: 20-21) and “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4: 8)

 

We see God takes this love thing very seriously. If you do not love your neighbor, then you do not love God. That means that we are to put away all evil speaking of each other, all stereotypes. No more “the kikuyu tribe is like this, or the Luo tribe is like that” such speaking should not come out of God’s children.

 

Jesus did not come to create barriers between people, but to abolish those barriers. The Jews and Samaritans were enemies, they had nothing to do with each other, did not even speak to each other, this division had been here for years. But when Jesus walked the earth, he set about to remove this division despite the hostility he faced. In John 4 there is a beautiful story of Jesus passing by a Samaritan town and there by a well ministering to this Samaritan woman with great love. The Jews spoke not to the Samaritans, and even the woman was amazed that he spoke to her and even asked him, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, ask drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans”. Not only was she a Samaritan, but a sinful woman at that (the disciples were shocked to find him with her). His love reached out to her and changed her and she led many to him.

 

In Luke 10, Jesus also gave the powerful parable of the good Samaritan, which powerfully explained that your neighbor is not that of the same tribe, religion or race, but your neighbor is anyone and everybody, even the very ‘Samaritan’ you despise.

 

The love of Jesus, draws, it does not reject, it unites, it does not divide, it forgives, embraces, its blind to all outward appearance, it shows no favoritism. The love of Christ reached out to tax collectors and prostitutes, the sick and destitute, children and sinners; all with deep compassion. He loved the sinners and hated the sin enough to free those who desired from it! How precious is his love towards us!

 

Philippians 2 says that we should have the mind of Christ. May we learn to see each other like God sees us. Those who have Christ should be driven by love. We should no longer see by our eyes, but through God’s eyes. It should no longer be us that live, but Christ that lives in us. Once we let go of who we are and in surrender let him live through us, we truly are able to love the unlovable and see with Christ’s eyes.

 

Paul, a great persecutor of the early church, was filled with such hate, discrimination, anger and venom; he had no love in him, only legalism and traditions he held on to for dear life. But when he encountered the living God he could not remain the same, his whole way of thinking and seeing changed. He became a man filled with pure love for all people. He reached a place where he could say: “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view…” (2 Corinthias 5:16)

 

May the love of God compel us and shape us. Freely we have received, freely let us give.

In Christ,

Mwendwa

http://unmeritedgrace.wordpress.com