Bible Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:11-15
Whatever we do, it is because Christ’s love controls us. 2 Corinthians 5:14
OKAY, MAKE A quick list in your head of everyone you love. Who makes it onto your list? Parents and grandparents? Siblings-at least some of the time? A boyfriend or girlfriend? Close friends? A pastor or youth leader? Favorite teachers? Your drooly dog, Bosco ? You might be able to generate a fairly long list of people for whom you have genuine love in your heart.
So who loves you? Maybe the same list of people-and Bosco too, who shows his affection when he jumps up to lick leftovers off your chin.
What you know about God’s love doesn’t just come from nature. God also demonstrates his love for you through the people he made. The apostle John put it this way: “Love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). Parents change messy diapers, referee fights, and provide you with food, clothes, and lots more. Husbands and wives commit to love each other till death do them part. Even some of the friendships you make right now might last a lifetime. And every time someone runs errands for a shut-in, provides meals for a sick friend, donates money or materials for disaster relief, helps a neighbor move furniture, or performs some other loving deed, God’s love shines through human behavior. The love you see tells you something about God’s love.
As a Christian, you’re like an instrument of God’s love to others. And people who experience true love, whether believers or not, sense God cares.
Droughts, floods, earthquakes-and twisters that toss cows into the air-some times make it tough to look at nature and see God’s care. Just like that, the human love you see in your world is sometimes warped. Sick and sinful human hearts twist love into pride, hatred, and revenge. Fighting, envy, and bitterness split individuals, families, friends, races, and nations. And yet human love shows up all around you. The most violent cultures have some piece of decency and respect in human relationships. They have laws and moral codes-and even Attila’s savage Huns loved their own spouses, children, and friends.
You have to hunt out the world’s most hard-boiled evildoers to find a person who doesn’t love someone: a parent, a kid, a brother or sister, a teacher, a husband or wife. And even the faintest glimmer of love in a human heart shows the fingerprint of the loving God who created you.
REFLECT: God has surrounded you with human love so you will know he loves you. How do you best see God’s message of love to you?
PRAY: When people love me, God, help me remember that you are the source of that love. Thanks for showing me your Love in solid ways.
