There is nothing more delightful than sincere earnest love from a pure heart! Yet it is so hard to find in our self focused world. No corporate office ever promoted on the basis of love. No political operative ever was chosen on the basis of love.
We use the word love in such strange and insincere ways. We not only love our families but we also love pizza, baseball, sports cars, chocolate, and jewelry. Some learn how to manipulate and control with counterfeit love. Sexuality is confused with love. The list goes on and on.
While it is easy to become jaded and expect that the world will be hard and lacking in love, it is extremely disappointing when we find this same lack of love in the church. Over and over again I have seen bright-eyed enthusiastic young church workers become disillusioned by the lack of love displayed by some in the church. The corporate model replaces loving decisions. Fiscal responsibility replaces generosity based on love.
Indeed this is not new. From the time of Jesus on, the necessity to love has been repeated over and over. Jesus declared “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). His self-sacrificing death on the cross for our forgiveness and life is the supreme act of love. Having been redeemed by His love how can we not love one another in the same way?
St. Paul and St. John speak about love just as Jesus and Peter. Paul writes, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). John declares, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7).
During a time when the rescue of the church is seen in glitz and glamour, may we be reminded that what makes the church and the Christian faith attractive is loving “one another earnestly from a pure heart.”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me with a sincere love. Grant that I may earnestly love from a pure heart. Amen.
The Washing of the Feet
Il Tintoretto 1518 – 1594
oil on canvas (210 × 533 cm)
1548-1549
Museo del Prado, Madrid
http://www.artbible.info/art/large/352.html
God’s richest blessings in Christ,
Pastor Philip Quardokus
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