Hi there. Thx for stopping by Abound in Love.
So, what exactly goes on here? Have you ever heard of the Narrow Door that Jesus talked about? Not sure, but go on. If you read in the Bible at Luke 13:22-30 Jesus says, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ Okay, so what does that have to do with me? Jesus is talking about eternal life here, and only those that he KNOWS will enter it. Well that’s good because he knows everybody. Yes, but, in those days the “know” he was talking about was like a close relationship, and when you look at a lot of the other things he and the rest of the Bible said like, “All will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another” (John 13:13-35), “He who does not love does not know God” (1 John 4:8), “You will know them by their fruits” (Matt 7:16) the greatest of which is love. It seems like there is some connection between “know” and love. Good thing I love my woman and she loves me eh? And I really really love my coffee 😊 Yeah, me too!! Coffee in heaven, hmmm Yes! Please. But, yeah, you are right, there is a connection between being “known” and love because love is the greatest command in the entire Bible, love is the fulfillment of all the laws in the Bible, and as you heard at some recent wedding, it is greater than faith and hope and when everything else passes away, love will remain forever. Cool! But that door doesn’t seem that narrow to me. It looks like most will go through it. So why did your first quote from Jesus say, “Strive”? Strive don’t jive 😊 In another passage Jesus says, “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matt 7;14). I still don’t see where the difficulty is. Just believe and love, that’s it right? Yes. True belief, or faith, actually follows Jesus’ command to love. otherwise it’s just lip service. The problem is that the way the world sees love is different from the way Jesus sees love. Check it out: Jesus says love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. He also asks, what credit is it to you if you only love those who love you, or if you only do good to those who do good to you, or if you only lend to those who can pay you back, because any sinner can do that. His kind of love chooses patience instead of irritation, anger, and retaliation; his way of love chooses mercy instead of criticism, insults, bitterness, and resentment. When someone offends us or screws up with us once, twice, and more, Jesus says to forgive them seven time seventy times. His way of love helps the hungry, the thirsty, the poor, the lonely. Okay, that is not so easy. I might have to strive to do that. But isn’t that what they call “works?” which is not exactly faith? Aren’t we saved by faith? There is a bit of a disconnect here. Great point. It would be works if we were trying to love so as to earn our way to eternal life. Well isn’t that what’s going on here? Here is the full picture. Works was tried but failed under what was called the Old Covenant (before Jesus’ time). The Old Covenant was "broken" because there was basically no love relationship between God and people. We are only able to love Him now and know Him because He first loved us. Under the New Covenant Jesus gave the greatest love, that is, by laying his life down for us. There has been no greater love than the Son of the living God giving up his glory and power, to show this love to his people and teach them His ways of love, and then to be rejected by them and then willingly suffer and be tortured by them, way past his human physical limits where he cried out, “My God My God why have You forsaken me?” especially when He easily had the power to stop it. How great, really, is that love? All he asks now is that we love him with our all, and love one another as he has loved us. The love that he is asking of us is borne out of the love that he first gave us. We can only love because he first loved us. Loving takes intentional abiding in him. Our striving is to abide in Him. Interesting. It reminds me of when I was learning to drive and my father was telling me all the time, “Check your blind spot” over and over. The rules are there for a reason. The authorities set the rules and give out the licence. The creator is the authority over life, He has set the rule of love and he gives out the licence to enter eternity. For whatever reason, the creator has declared LOVE as the paramount purpose for our lives, and it is almost counter-cultural to what most people believe it is. We are known as legitimate drivers on the road by our drivers licence-we are known for entrance through the Narrow Door to eternity by our love. You got it. So, back to your original question, "What goes on here?" It is a place where spiritual growth is taken to a higher level as we walk in His fullness, His will for our lives, and where we get to know God in relationship. There is food, teaching, and great worship. We hope to see you soon. Sounds good. Looking forward to it! |
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