Chapter 3 :
love
The greatest of all, the fruit of a great single life
Part Eight
Why this is Good news
This is good news because love is what we need to get rid of our insecurities. This we know instinctively, which is why many of us constantly need someone around our arms to feel secure. This is also why we like to have friends. However, finding our security in others is simply not going to give us any real security. People let us down, break our hearts, or don’t love us in return as much as we love them. When this happens, all sorts of other things creep in. Bitterness, anger, jealousy, loneliness and perhaps depression. We all react to rejection in different ways, but all sorts of reactions cause us to sin and harden our hearts. We build walls around our hearts and become miserable people. The end result is clear – we become entangled and shackled by all of our bitterness, misery and unforgiveness – by all these sins, and sin ultimately brings death to our lives. No one can claim they are experiencing life and life to the full when they are constantly bitter and miserable.
But praise be to God – for He is able to fulfill this need! He loved us first! Yes!
Furthermore, in Phil 4:19 the Word says “God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Too many people look at this verse as God saying He will supply our finances, or our food, or our material needs. While it means that it also means more than that. God is able to supply all of our emotional needs as well. He is able to supply our need for love, and so He says – so our joy may be complete! (John 15:11 NIV.)
AT LAST, there is a love we can have that will never let us down and we can always rely on. There is a place where we can go where we will always be secure. We no longer need others to make us secure – our security is in God. And now, at LAST, we can love others freely and unconditionally – we do not need love in return in order for us to love. We can love because we love. And if God brings us a spouse – we can love them unconditionally too. God’s love sets us free to really love as singles, and in marriage we can really love as well. Neither marriage nor singleness is the doorway to experiencing and attaining love. ONLY God is, and this love is the source of all joy that we could ever need or want or desire!
Why this ignites our Christian life
This kind of love is not only the kind that sorts out our relational and security problems, but also it’s the kind of love that causes our Christian lives to be lived out with joy and gladness.
Galatians 5:6
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision not uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.”
I said this earlier – that the difference between a dry, religious Christian life and a joyful, spontaneous and life-filled Christian is love. This is because our faith works through love. In 1 Cor 13 Paul says that if we have not love we are only a ‘resounding gong or clanging cymbal.’ (1 Cor 13:1.) Our lives are without melody and harmony and beauty without love. We’re just a noise, not a symphony. We can have the faith to move mountains, give our lives for the poor and can do the greatest and most wonderful things in this world but without love its all for nothing. (1 Cor 13:2,3.) Without love it lacks LIFE, because it lacks God.
The bottom line is we CAN’T live the Christian life in joy without love. Love is the reason why giving up drinking or smoking (or whatever God calls you to give up) is made easier and non-religious. We can’t give up drinking for ‘religious’ or ‘law/rule’ reasons. However, God makes these things easy to give up when our faith is working through love. Love for God and our neighbour – not because we HAVE to, but because we WANT to – because God has given us love and joy and these other things don’t compare.
