How can we love God? – 4 January 2024, Anno Domini

 

 

Could we with ink the ocean fill,[1]

and were the skies of parchment made;

were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill,

and ev’ryone a scribe by trade;

to write the love of God above

would drain the ocean dry;

nor could the scroll contain the whole,

though stretched from sky to sky.

 

            There is no earthly yardstick by which we can measure that infinite love that descends from God in Heaven:  17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.  (Eph 3:16-19)

 

The greatest possible concept we can have of that love is the Incarnation of God’s only Begotten Son who condescended to be born in a world of cold hatred for His Father, and ours, to suffer the same outrageous fortune of which humankind is heir from Adam until today.

 

            The nature of God as the eternal Fountain of Love should loom as huge in our minds as His nature as a Creator who showers that love on His Creation. Our love for God, and for our neighbors, is a measure of who we are as Christians. We take great umbrage at the least offenses of others while viewing our own greater offenses with the vision of a mole. 

 

            As I have often written in the past, and will continue in the future, by the grace of God, our love is not our own making or possession – it is merely a reflection of that love with which God has loved us first. It is an echo in the same manner in which we of faith are all reflections of the Light of God which is Truth. It is the Truth of God that sets us free from the bondage of sin and death.   . . . ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.   (John 8:32)  We are obligated to share the Love of God in the same way we are responsible to propagate the truth of the Gospel to the world. 

 

A

ND this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. 

(1 John 4:21)

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[1] This is the third verse of a hymn, The love of God, attributed to Frederick M. Lehman:  https://hymnary.org/text/the_love_of_god_is_greater_far