Love comes in various attributes, forms and presentation. We understand love from the way we interact with family members, friends, lovers and acquaintances. Sometimes, we offer our love and sometimes we receive love from others. This cyclic flow of reciprocal love is what propels us to move on with life; a tiny glimpse of what Christians should be expecting in heaven.
Have you noticed?
Perhaps a few more years for some and you will realise that this world which we are living in has some inherent weaknesses and errors. From the day which we were born, endless vacuum of wants and desires surrounded us. Our basic instinct is to first seek out all the possible sources of love in whatever manners we can. As babies, we cry so that our requests can be met. Some have argued that this is the only "known" form of communication by the babies and should not be considered as a selfish way but time will tell. As kids, we learn new languague(s), verbal as well as non-verbal, so that we can communicate with our family members. But we fall back to our tears when our wants are left undone. Progressively over time, we acquire new techniques of achieving our desires into our learned skillsets. As teenagers, we probably have so many love-seeking methods that we are spoilt for choices. At this juncture, some may start to realise that love is not all about receiving, we can also offer, if we want to, a portion of our love to people we hold so dearly. As adults, we tend to start to engage in mutual forms of loving interaction. This is really an art rather than a science because a precision must be achieved to avoid costly experiments. There is no empirical result that holds true between different human entities because each one of us are unique. As such, we start to mourn because love has finally taken her toil at us. Love becomes a mysterious element to be very wary of. She has emerged as a big question mark where answers are being sought throughout our lives.
So, how does the bible describes love?
The bible states that the highest form of love is the "Agape", a selfish form of sacrifical love which God has demonstrated for us when He sent Jesus, His only begotten son, to die for us on the cross. Have we got anything worthy of such a cause? Absolutely not! For all has sinned and fall short of the glory of God [Rom 3:23]. But because of God's great love, we are not consumed [Lam 3:22]. God is love [1John 4:8] and is the Author of our life [Acts 3:15], therefore He has personally come to show us how to love both our Creator and the people in this world [Matt 22:37-39].
The bible also commanded us to love one another just as Christ has loved us [John 13:34]. A command is something which we must obey, regardless of our own choices. In other words, to love is the core of Jesus's message to His disciples which summarises the two greatest commandments - to love God and to love our neighbours [Matt 22:37-39].
Are there any differences between the divine love and the earthly love? Plenty!
Most earthly love are temporal. When trials come, earthly love fade away. Reflect and count the number of times that your family and friends had disappointed you because of their lack of love. Think and recount the number of times you had neglected people because of inherent biased love. We find it hard to time-share our love to many people, especially when they come all at the same time. Often, we will choose carefully the recipient whom we want to love. Our love has a limit. At times, love can also mutate into negative feelings like hatred, jealousy and anger. The bottomline is - we do not know how to love.
What then for us?
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~ Rom 8:38-39
God's Word is everlasting [Matt 24:35]. His promises hold forever. The love of God has such great strength that it binds our relationship with Him tightly together. Therefore, we can be assured that no one and nothing can separate us from the love of God. Even sins can no longer divide us from our Creator because Christ has died on the cross for all our wrongdoings. God's love is universal, inviting all to put their faith in Jesus Christ, His Son. And because of our faith in God's saving grace; we are justified and clothed with righteousness. We become heirs to God's kingdom in Christ [Rom 8:17].
Such were the vast differences between the divine love and the earthly love. And if we look carefully at the Calvary's cross, there are some interesting insights for us to ponder upon.
"... And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." ~ Eph 3:17b-19
When examined carefully from all angles, the crucifix has many dimensions - wide, long, high and deep. Indeed, Christ has demonstrated all these attributes of the divine love when He died for us, all sinners, on the cross. Perhaps, if one can measure the width between the east and the west, the length between the north and the south, the height between the heaven and the earth, the depth between the sky and the ocean bed, then that is how wide, long, high and deep God's love has for us.
For those non-mathematics inclined, the divine love that Christ had shown on the Calvary's cross can be seen as how God has extended the invitation of His salvation from the Israelites to all the nations (wide); has levelled the racial, culture, color discrimination among people to be equal in His eyes (long); has bridged the great gulf separating Man and Himself (tall), has won the victory over sins and death (deep).
Such is the divine love of God which is poured out to all those who believe and receive. Such is the "Agape" love whom Apostle Peter was being asked for three times by the Lord. He has responded. What about you?
Be blessed! You, who are being loved by God [Jedidiah].
(End)
