A Complete Love

10.9.20 1 John 4:12

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

I have a little wooden German hiker on the shelf in my office. You can open him up and put incense in him and smoke comes out of his mouth. The hiker was given to me by a foreign exchange student that lived with us for a year back in 1998 or so. When I use the incense burner, I think of her for a bit. I see her in him. That’s the way life is. Little things in life bring up memories from the past.

This is how God works in this world as well. God leaves remnants of Himself in a sinful and fallen world. You can see His power in a thunderstorm. You can see His beauty and wisdom in the ecosystem and the design of trees and animals. You can see His life in the flowers of spring. These aren’t only memories of the past, but also reminders of the PRESENT. God wants to tell the world, “I’m still here! Come and find me!”

But this world is so ugly in some ways. It’s history is full of sickness, death and destruction. Families are split apart by divorce. More and more people are feeling abandoned and alone as they fear death by Covid. People say to themselves, “Where is God? If God is in this world, He certainly doesn’t care. I don’t think I want to find him.” So John writes, No one has ever seen God.”

But God is here, and He wants people to see a different side of Him: a loving God: a faithful God: a forgiving God: a compassionate God. We only find this God in the person of Jesus Christ, who chose to come into our world and live with us to make Himself visible. He made Himself weak. He made Himself crucify-able. God held out His hands on a cross to give us life and forgiveness. He wanted us to see the God who could conquer sickness, disease, and death. He wanted to save the world and give us hope in the midst of death, through faith in Jesus Christ. He wants to be our life, our hope, and our salvation. Through His mercy He wants us to enjoy His gifts in the here and the now too! We find this God in the Bible, in Jesus, revealed in the Word, given to us in the sacraments.

But here’s another neat thing, God also wants to be seen in you and through you. John writes, if we love one another, God lives in us. The story is told of a couple who couldn’t get along, so the counselor told them to have a donkey live in their house for a week. By the time the week was over, the couple was getting along great, but they both hated the donkey. It was making a mess of their house! God doesn’t do that when He moves in. God is love. God is forgiveness. God is mercy. He comes in to change the way you live. You can’t help it, for God is more powerful than a donkey.

Marriage is meant to be a special way, a special opportunity, a special picture of how God’s love works. In Ephesians 5 Paul talked about how God’s love is supposed to be illustrated to the world: through the relationship of a husband and a wife. Jesus, the Groom, died on the cross and sacrificed Himself to make the Bride, the Church, look holy and forgiven. The Church, in turn, admired Him for His sacrifice. We praise Him for His sacrifice. We submit to Him, knowing that He will take care of us and provide for us. He loves us, and we love Him. Kevin, you are to love sacrificially for Karen. Karen, you are to love submissively for Kevin.

Love, according to the Bible, is not only bound to feelings and sex. It is bound to sacrifice and duty, putting the other person first and wanting them to be what God designed them to be. When love works this way, it works well, even in a sinful world. It gives us the ability to stick with each other through the thick in the thin. God’s love gives us the willingness to suffer for one another and forgive one another. It sounds archaic and old fashioned in the ears of the world, but who are they to judge? They haven’t exactly been successful with their marriage practices now have they? The devil’s version of marriage is to stick with it for a few years, see how you feel about it, and then decide from there. The devil wants you to bristle against God’s version of love, so that you call it chauvinistic or unromantic. This is revelation from God, not the opinion of man. This is how God wants to show His love to the world. This is how He wants to live in you, through a loving marriage!