What Spirit Rules Your Life?
“In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved.”
St. John of the Cross
Does self-sacrificial love rule your life? God gave us his only Son as a sacrifice to atone for our pride, our rebellion, and our ingratitude in the face of His perfect love. He held back nothing from us, allowing His Son to suffer and die for the very people who chose to make themselves His enemies.
God’s command to love our enemies is a command to be like Him.
God’s command to forgive without limits is a command to be like Him.
God wants us to be like Him, because He desires to restore us to the perfect state in which He created us. He made us in His perfect image. We shattered that image when we shattered His heart with our disobedience.
Nevertheless, God’s infinite love endured that ultimate heartbreak. He loved us so much he gave us Himself, his mercy, and a path to complete healing and restoration. In Christ, we can be perfected, and learn to love and forgive beyond human limits.
The degree to which we live a life defined by love for God and others is the greatest evidence of whether we truly have Christ in us, the hope of glory.
“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
1 John 4:7–11
© 2021 Noel Bagwell. All Right Reserved.
