EXPERIENCING THE GLORY OF GOD (5)

“May the Lord make your love grow more and multiply for each other and for all people so that you will love others as we love you” (1 Thessalonians 3:12 NCV).

The love of God is transforming. It is the most transforming power known to man. It’s goal is always to bring the beloved into conformity with Christ. J. Oswald Sanders defines love as “the self-imparting quality in the nature of God that moves Him to seek the highest good of His creatures, in whom He seeks to awake responsive love.” Love is the intrinsic nature of God.  When one receives Christ, the nature of love is imparted into him or her in a form of seed, which must be nurtured over time to maturity. When the love of God is received in a heart, it awakens responsive love in the person. This means that the person receives the capacity to respond in love to God and to people. This capacity to respond in love to God and people is the means through which Christians learn to grow in their experience of the love of God. The believer is deemed mature in Christ only to the extent he or she is maturing in love.  The more the believers learn to respond to people and situations around him with the love of Christ, the more mature he will be termed to be.

The sons of Zebedee, James and John, provide a good case study of the transforming influence of God’s love.  They had three character traits that negate love, which the Lord has to deal with in order to mature Christlikeness in them. First, they were inordinately ambitious and that caused serious dissension among the apostles.  “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” (Mark 10:35-37 NKJV). Their demand bespeaks of selfishness, which has no place in Christian love. Love by its very nature is not self-seeking. It is rather self-giving.

Second, they were tempestuous and intolerant of opposition.  “As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival. But the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. So they went on to another village” (Luke 9:51-56 NKJV). Jesus had told them that He came to give life to people and not to kill them, which is the work of Satan. Yet they were asking for power to call down fire to destroy the people of Samaria simply because they did not allow Jesus to pass through their territory. Our Lord turned down their request and followed an alternative route. Love is tolerant and provides room for others to change.

Third, they were cliquish and unaccommodating of people who do not belong to their circle.  “Now John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.” (Luke 9:49-50 NKJV). Again, this attitude is a clear negation of love. God’s love is universal and always seeks the highest good of His creatures.  Similarly, Christians as those who have received the love of Christ must seek the highest good of all people without distinction.

However, after God poured out His love into the heart of the disciples through the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), the sons of Zebedee received an impartation of the divine nature and began to grow in love. James loved God and people so much that he had the privilege of being the first Christian martyr. John, on the other hand, lived on to become the great apostle of love. No bible writer received the revelation of love at the level John did. He had the privilege of being one of the delegates who prayed for the new converts in Samaria to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I guess the Holy Spirit must have whispered to him, “what if the Lord had allowed you to call down fire to consume them a few years back?”  James and John allowed the love of God they received in Christ to transform them into the persons God designed them to be. What a godly legacy they left for us!

Let us the pray with our text: “May the Lord make your love grow more and multiply for each other and for all people so that you will love others as we love you” in Jesus’ name.