This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. – 1 John 3:16-17, MSG
Tina Turner famously sang, “What’s love but a secondhand emotion?” Her words expressed a transactional exchange that was void of any underlying relational concern or consideration. “What’s love got to do with it?”
In contrast, scripture informs us that love is more verb than noun, and definitely not transactional.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Another mass shooting. Universal condemnation of the heinous act, followed by expressions of condolence, an overflow of memorials and declarations of love for families bearing unimaginable grief.
Transformation? Change?
If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
What’s love got to do with it? Everything.
Categories: Acts17seventeen
Pastor Mark
A p-k (preacher’s kid), Mark is the eighth of nine children born to Reuben and Henrietta Meeks, prolific planters of nearly 30 churches throughout the Central Valley of California. After four decades of teaching, discipling, and ministering, including to the hospitalized and imprisoned, Mark responded to God’s call to pastoral ministry. In addition to degrees in civil engineering and public administration, Mark received his Masters in Theology from Fuller Seminary.
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