Dear Friend:
Have you ever heard someone say “I love you” but there is no action or physical evidence of it? I’m sure each one of us has experienced this and we very quickly conclude that the speaker is not telling the truth.
Why? Because true love ALWAYS must be demonstrated in some way or other. There MUST be evidence of love – in fact not just love but every such quality, like joy, patience etc… Each quality has actions that show that a person has that quality.
What actions would you say show love?
There could be many small or large actions given, but I’d have to say one of the strongest demonstrations of love is sacrificial giving – giving at great cost to the giver.
However, if a man who lived in Ikelenge, a place with no lakes or large rivers, bought a very expensive boat for his wife, would that show love? Well, though it might be a large sacrifice for him, those of us who would pass by and see the boat in a place where no-one can use it would actually not see it as an expression of love, but might wonder if the man was crazy! A bit like the people of Noah’s day likely thought they saw Noah building a huge boat on land, far from water. Likely the man’s wife would also wonder at the expression of love. So, really the strongest demonstration of love is a appropriate sacrificial giving – giving an appropriate gift at great cost to the giver.
The best – yes THE BEST – example of showing love by appropriate sacrificial giving was when “God so love the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
A popular song in this area has the words “Oh God you love me too much…”, in other words, “God decrease your love for me, it is too much…” How wrong! God can’t love us too much. NO! God loves us “SO” much, in other words, God loves us “BEYOND WHAT WE WOULD EVEN IMAGINE” – how wonderful!
Not one person can ever say they were unloved – God loves them; how do we know?
The Bible tells us many times that we all inherit being sinners by birth (Psalms 51:5, Romans 5:12,…) and that because of this we all deserve eternal judgment (Roman 6:23, 2 Thes 1:5-9 …). This means that the greatest need of each individual born in this world is to be rescued, saved from such judgment and changed. So, if this is the greatest need of each individual, than the most appropriate gift that anyone could receive is salvation from judgment and a changed life.
Wow! That is exactly what God offers as a gift to each person who “believes” in who Christ is and what He did. Who believes that Christ is God in the flesh (1 Tim 3:16, Heb 1:8,10), who took a body (Phil 2:8, Heb 10:5) in order to pay the most expensive price, the price of His own precious life(1 Pet 1:18-19), so that you and I could be saved. It cost God and Christ greatly to offer us salvation. Christ had to go and die on a cross (John 19:19, Gal 3:13) and pay for your sins and mine (1 Cor 15:3-5, Col 2:14, 1 Pet 2:24), that is the greatest cost anyone could pay – their own life! (John 15:3)
No wonder Romans 5:8 says:
“but God demonstrated (showed) His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Have you experience this Love and received the Gift of God? It is my prayer that if you have not that you would.
