One of the Points

One of the points in my sermon on Sunday is that the follower of Jesus Christ takes initiative in the area of love. I want to pursue that a little bit more.

First, I've always maintained that, from the perspective of God, love is not an emotion. Love is the activity of showing undeserved care and favor. As imitators of God, love is how we live out unconditional love for the people God calls us to care for (that's everyone in our sphere of influence.)

Second, our posture as followers of Christ is to be that of one pressing forward. God's love presses forward. As I said on Sunday, we have a tendency to pull back when we're hurt. If we reach out our hand and get burned, we'll pull it away quickly. The same is true when we reach out in love. Our tendency when we get emotionally or spiritually hurt is to pull back; but that isn't God's posture or tendency. And aren't we fortunate that it isn't. You see, at the crucifixion God would have been within His right to pull away from us. To say to us, "You killed my son... go to Hell." Not figuratively, realistically. "You've turned from me, rejected my love, so just plan on spending your eternity in Hell." That's not the way of God though. God presses forward with forgiveness, the resurrection, and the promise of eternal life.

What are the implications? As the body of Christ, the church, we should always be pressing forward in love. We should be moving outside the walls of the church to assure our community that they are loved. We must always focus ourselves on reaching out to our neighbors, and if rejected, not to retreat, but to continue to press forward.

How do you press forward in love?