Hello ICC Family!
“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child.
But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly,
like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.
All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely,
just as God now knows me completely.”
1 Corinthians 13:11-12
These verses above are found in the “Love chapter” of the Bible, so their context is not just our knowledge of God and spiritual things. They relate to how we put love in action, and reveal why it is difficult to be loving sometimes - because our love is not yet perfect. I have been thinking about them in comparison to the verse we looked at last Sunday in 1st John 4:18 that told us that perfect love drives out fear.
Going back to asking Laurel to marry me… I didn’t understand, and I couldn’t even comprehend at the time, how much sacrifice it takes to truly love another person. Today, I know and understand it a little more. Because I have experienced it through 25 years of marriage and raising two children. From the easier choices of eating at the restaurant somebody else wants to go to and watching what they want to watch on TV… To the more difficult choice of holding off on major life changes because it would be harmful to your loved one’s growth in Christ. Over these years I have seen the Lord work in all of our hearts and help us to know each other better and show each other grace more and more.
But my love isn’t perfect yet. There are days I don’t feel like loving. And on those days, I have to remember that love is a command, it’s not a feeling. Love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength… and love your neighbor (or your wife), as yourself. Even then there are days when I just fail to love well - usually when I’m tired or stressed. It is difficult to love sacrificially when you are thinking about yourself and not others! But while my love isn’t perfect yet…, God’s love for us is perfect, and it always has been! And that is what drives out fear. Not my imperfect love and not my human wisdom or strength. Only the love of God!
This is the love that we are on a journey to experience and understand and make our own. We are thankful that there will come a day when God’s perfect love will completely become our own perfect love as well. This is yet another reason to look forward to heaven! That is when all of these commands we have read in 1st John to love our brothers and sisters will no longer be a struggle at all. Because we will be with Jesus, and love will be made complete among us.
Please join me ICC, in praying for our Holy week services coming up. Beginning this Sunday with Palm Sunday, and then of course our Good Friday and Resurrection Day services. I am so much looking forward to worshiping and celebrating with you!
Blessings to you all. And know that I’m praying for you!
Pastor Aaron