Of the many things that continue to defy my understanding, love is by far the most elusive. I used to try to figure it out, and every time I thought I might be getting closer to knowing what it was, I would experience it in another way or to a greater degree. I found it to be an ever-expanding concept. My every effort to understand love only confirmed that it could not be understood.
The author of today’s message asks, “How can God command us to love?” To me, the answer is pretty clear: God commands us to love because (1) He is love, and (2) we were created in His image. Failure to grow in love represents a failure to pursue the very reason for which we were created. God made us to love. In Jesus He showed just how much He loves us and at the same time, gave us the perfect model of love.
Dismissing all the emotionally-derived versions of “love” that pervade our culture, the Bible tells us God is love (1 John 4:8), and that we are made in His image (Gen 1:27). It follows, then, that as I grow closer to the image in which I was made, I grow in love. Love isn’t something I do. It is something I become as I pursue God. As I experience God in a greater way, I experience love in a greater way, as well. And just as the mind can’t begin to comprehend all that God is, the mind fails to comprehend all that love is. John (4:4) reminds us that “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” Pursuing God (who is love) and love (who is God) is a fully spiritual endeavor. Our feeble mental abilities are useless.
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