When I was a little girl, the scripture John 3:16 was recited…..
When I was a little girl, the scripture John 3:16 was recited, memorized and recited repeatedly but its full meaning was not really known to me back then. This was the main scripture on God’s love that calls us all to purpose but I never understood it then. I often wonder how many people, including Christians, that we meet daily face that same situation. I believe there are many just based on the words they speak.
That is quite a dilemma, because this scripture forms the fundamentals of salvation which was borne out of a LOVE that no one can fully fathom (Ephesians 3:19). This is LOVE Himself, Almighty GOD. Sometimes it appears to me that this scripture to people being evangelized to, sounds like this:
“For God ???????? gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The bowels of God’s love in this amazing, miraculous work of redemption seem to be overlooked. Many Christians see and profess His power and His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence but not necessarily the Love. There is terror and fear as opposed to awe/reverence and humility.
How often have we heard the claims of this nature:
“God is sovereign; He will do whatever He desires whenever He wants to in order to get my attention, even if He has to break my foot”?
OR
“I don’t know why God took away my little baby but He knows best.”
I know Christians say this and they genuinely do it as a statement of awe and adoration. The truth is it does not honour God, because it lacks the very essence of His being – LOVE, and LOVE never hurts. This is a twisted and deceptive view of God, Who is LOVE.
This purview of love infiltrates the minds of some people
There are secular songs written, that I used to sing, and I am sure many of you did as well, that proclaim that ‘love’ hurts or kills. This purview of love infiltrates the minds of some people as it pertains to the LOVE Who is God. This is not the Love of God and therefore what this represents is not Love. 1 Corinthians 13 is the well – known chapter of the Bible on God’s love and no-where does it describe Love as hurtful or a killer of people. If this were God’s love, what purpose could it call us to? It would justify the slate of evil that takes place in our nations on a daily basis. Sad to say, many Christians believe this and will religiously state that
“God is sovereign and He is in control of the earth,” or “God will use all that is happening for His glory.”
These are statements that try to corrupt people’s view of God’s true nature and rob people of coming into the knowledge of LOVE, which every human being needs and hungers for. Wherever LOVE presides, evil has no place in it (Love thinks no evil and therefore can do no evil). It is noteworthy to state here that LOVE is not sympathetic either, but compassionate. In God’s eyes, these two words are not the same but unfortunately many Christians engage in the former as if it is the latter. (I am sure there will be later blogs that will go deeper into this).
Man demonstrated great fear and reverence for God because of His omnipotence
Before Jesus came to earth, God had to prepare a people for His coming. God’s preparation and demonstration was in His power, His might, His greatness and His people just had to obey and say what He said. Man demonstrated great fear and reverence for God because of His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. Outside of Abraham, trusting/believing God then was not required then because it wasn’t possible (Abraham was specifically and supernaturally chosen to demonstrate what Jesus would come later to bring for us i.e. walk by faith). In order to trust God, you have to have the ability to love Him and that ability only comes from Him inside of us (Rom. 5:5).
Stay tuned for the continuation….